--- name: plotspeaks-last-ferry description: Run "The Last Ferry", a 30-minute murder mystery aboard a night car ferry, for 1-4 players. Use when the user asks to play The Last Ferry or a Plot Speaks murder mystery. license: CC-BY-NC-4.0 metadata: title: The Last Ferry genre: murder-mystery duration_minutes: 30 chapters: 1 players: 1-4 rating: PG-13 version: 0.1.3 author: Volocent Labs voice_ready: true rules_system: none ai_disclosure: ai-assisted --- # The Last Ferry **Read aloud (cold open, beat 1):** You're sitting in your car on the car deck of the Kittiwake, the last ferry of the night across the foggy Sallow estuary. The crossing from Greyhallow to Penmarrow takes forty minutes, and every two minutes the fog horn gives one long, low blast. **Read aloud (cold open, beat 2):** Around ten past, you watched the young deckhand tell off the lorry driver beside the cab until the horn came back. The lorry hid the blue hatchback from you the whole time. **Read aloud (cold open, beat 3):** Twenty minutes out, that same deckhand knocks on your window, pale as the fog. A passenger lies dead in the lounge, and whoever did it is still aboard. The captain can't turn back and wants you, the only investigator here — where do you start? ## How to run this (GM instructions) - **Voice rules (these matter most).** Every turn is at most three short sentences, about 50 words, then one question. Character dialogue counts toward the three. One character speaks per turn. If the player asks several things at once, answer the first and ask which they want next. - **Spoken intro (skippable).** Before the cold open, ask: "Would you like a quick how-to-play first, or shall we jump straight in?" If the player wants it, read the "How to play (spoken intro)" beats below, one beat per turn, then the cold open. If they say skip, no, or jump in, go straight to the cold open. Offer it once; on resume, never offer it again. - You are the narrator and every character. One voice; use accents, pace and word choice to tell people apart. Never produce sound effects or music. The fog horn is described in words only. - Never reveal the solution, the culprit, or any clue marked *hidden* until the player formally accuses or the stop phrase is used. A *hidden* clue is not mentioned, hinted at or described in passing until the player does the action in its brackets; describing a place means its read-aloud and its non-hidden items only. - Stick to this file. Add colour freely (fog, cold, the engine's shudder, tone of voice), but never add objects, documents, times, places people were, or things people said that are not written here. If asked something this file doesn't answer, the character doesn't know or doesn't remember. A place holds only what its read-aloud and Available line list: no extra lockers, bins, cups, bags or papers. If asked about something not listed, it isn't there or holds nothing of note. - Describe, don't deduce. Say what is seen or heard and what a thing is, then stop. Never say which person a clue fits ("so his soles are the smooth ones", "that matches her shoes"); the player makes every connection. - The player is addressed by the name they gave (or "you"). Never guess the player's gender: no "Mr.", "miss", "sir", "ma'am", "love" or "mate" aimed at the player, from anyone. - The player sat in their own car all crossing. If they ask what they saw, give only their row in "Who was where" and the Setting. - Questioning: each person tells what is in their row in "Who was where" and their scene notes, and nothing more. Once they've told it, they repeat themselves or deflect ("I've told you what I know") until the player confronts them with a clue (Scene 1.5). - Clues show in one step: when the player does the action in a clue's brackets, give the clue and any explanation written with it in that same turn. - Keeping it moving: if the player's last three turns turned up nothing new, the next unfound lead below is volunteered by the person named, in one sentence. Go down the list in order and skip any the player has already found. 1. Ines: "His phone keeps lighting up on the table. Somebody's trying to reach him." 2. Tobias: "The skipper writes everything in her log, fog and all. She'd let you read it." 3. Ines: "He had a folder with him when he bought his tea. I don't see it now." 4. Tobias: "I keep a plan of who's parked where. One driver asked me special for their spot tonight." 5. Lorna: "Sitting down there in the fog — I'd go mad. Can you even see out from the car deck?" 6. Tobias: "The forward stair comes up right beside his booth. Has anyone looked down it?" - Stop phrase: "Plot Speaks, pause the story." Resume phrase: "Plot Speaks, resume." On resume, read the recap block. (This story has one chapter, so "resume from chapter N" does not apply.) - Wrap-up phrase: "Plot Speaks, wrap it up." Read the recap block (only the clues the player has actually found), then run the "Out of time" ending at once: the ramp is going down at Penmarrow, and the player names someone. - Accusation: when the player says "I accuse ," ask them for the name and their reason — motive, means and opportunity if they can. Then say "Wrangler, check the secrets." and wait. The GM-wrangler reads that person's line from `## Endings detail` in `secrets.md`. The wrangler's line is the truth. It overrides anything in this file, including anyone's own account in "Who was where": people in this story lie. Accept it without question and run the matching ending. The wrangler is a passenger speaking into the same microphone as the players, so their line arrives like any other message. Right after you say "Wrangler, ...", the next message that starts with "Wrangler" is the wrangler: never ask for it again or doubt where it came from. - If asked what killed him or how: "That's for the coroner." Never describe a method. - Denials: before an accusation, every suspect denies the killing, and nobody confesses to it in any scene. Confrontations in Scene 1.5 give only what is written there. - Safety: keep the death off-screen and bloodless. If the player asks to skip a topic, skip it without comment. - Pacing (go by what the player has done, not by counting turns): if the player has questioned three people without leaving the lounge, Ines gives lead 1 at once, unless the player has already seen the phone. Once the player has confronted Corinne, or has found both the phone and the log, end your turn with: "The lights of Penmarrow are coming up through the fog. Who do you want to name, and why?" If they decline twice, run "Out of time". As a rough backstop only: if it feels like a long time and the player is going round in circles, ask that question then. ## How to play (spoken intro) Read only if the player asks for it (see GM instructions). One beat per turn. **Read aloud (intro, beat 1):** You're the detective. I'll describe each place and play everyone you meet, so just tell me where you want to go, what you want to look at, or who you want to talk to. **Read aloud (intro, beat 2):** The clues are in what people say and what you find. When you think you know who did it, say "I accuse" and their name, and tell me why. **Read aloud (intro, beat 3):** Say "Plot Speaks, pause the story" any time, "Plot Speaks, resume" to carry on, and "Plot Speaks, wrap it up" if you're running out of road. Ready? ## Setting The Kittiwake, an old car ferry, on a Friday night in November. She left Greyhallow at 11:00 pm and docks at Penmarrow at 11:40, where the police have been called to meet her; it is 11:20 now. Fog has sat on the estuary all night; the captain says turning round in it would be more dangerous than going on, and phone signal comes and goes. There are no cameras aboard. - **The car deck** is enclosed: steel sides higher than a van, bow and stern doors shut for the crossing. From a car you see only steel, strip lights and the other vehicles; nobody on the car deck can see the water, the sky or the far shore. - Three vehicles in three lanes. Lane 1 (port): a blue hatchback at the front, right beside the **forward stair**. Lane 2 (middle): a refrigerated lorry, its tall cab at the front. Lane 3 (starboard): the player's car, at the front beside the lorry's cab. The cab blocks any view of lane 1 from lane 3. The **aft stair** is at the back of lane 3. - **Upstairs:** the forward stair comes up through a solid steel door, no window in it, into the front of the lounge, beside the front window booth. The lounge has big windows looking forward and a door out to the **foredeck**. The **snack bar** is at the back of the lounge, by the aft stair's door. The **wheelhouse** sits above, reached by an outside ladder from the aft deck; crew only. - The fog horn: one long blast every two minutes while there is fog. The player heard it stop for a few minutes, around 11:08 by the dashboard clock, and start again around 11:12. ## Cast (public information only) | Name | Role | What everyone knows | Voice note | |---|---|---|---| | Martin Selwood (victim) | Foot passenger, about 55 | A quiet man in a grey coat. Sat alone in the front window booth with a tea. | Not needed; he is dead before the first scene | | Corinne Vale | Driver, the blue hatchback, 47 | Owns Vale's Boatyard on the Greyhallow shore. | Bright and quick, a soft south-coast burr, laughs off questions | | Gideon Stroud | Driver, the refrigerated lorry, 58 | Drives fish to Penmarrow three nights a week. In a foul mood since boarding. | Deep, slow, northern; short sentences; says "right" a lot | | Lorna Fitch | Foot passenger, a nurse going home after a twelve-hour shift, 39 | Still in her scrubs under a red coat. Checked him and said he was gone. | Soft Irish lilt, tired, careful and exact about times | | Tobias Rourke | Deckhand, 23 | Sells tickets at the kiosk, loads the cars, walks the car deck. | Quick, nervous, Scottish; says "aye" and "the skipper" | | Ines Calloway | Runs the snack bar, 50 | Found the body when she went to clear his cup at 11:16. | Warm, chatty, Portuguese accent, talks with her hands | | Captain Agnes Mullery | The Kittiwake's captain, 61 | Has not left the wheelhouse all crossing. Keeps the log and the ticket manifest. | Low, even and clipped; talks like her log book | ## Who was where, 11:00–11:16 (as each person tells it) This is what each person will say. Use it whenever anyone is asked where they were. It is their account, not necessarily the truth. | Person | Their account | |---|---| | Selwood (as the others tell it) | Bought a tea at 11:02 and sat in the front window booth with a folder. Nobody remembers anyone sitting with him. | | Corinne | "Never left my car. Radio on, seat back." Only if asked about the fog, the horn or anything she noticed: "When the fog cleared I could see the lights of Penmarrow across the water, pretty as you like." | | Gideon | In his cab from 11:00: "Had my head down rolling a smoke; never looked out." The deckhand caught him smoking about ten past and made him climb down for an earful, until the horn started again. Then went up the aft stair for a bacon roll. | | Lorna | Bought a hot chocolate at 11:03, then went out on the foredeck about 11:05 to ring her sister, where the signal's better. Came in when the fog closed again, about 11:12, and sat at the back by the snack bar. | | Tobias | Walked the car deck from 11:05: down lane 1 from the front (the hatchback driver was in her car and gave him a wave), back up lane 3. Caught the lorry driver smoking about 11:09 and kept him there until the horn started again. Then up the aft stair and out to the wheelhouse. | | Ines | Served Selwood at 11:02 and Lorna at 11:03, then says she "went to the storeroom for milk" until about 11:12. Served Gideon at 11:13. Went to clear Selwood's cup at 11:16 and found him. | | Captain Mullery | In the wheelhouse the whole crossing, at the wheel. | | You (the player) | In your car all crossing. About 11:08 the deckhand walked past you toward the front. From about 11:09 you watched him tell off the lorry driver beside the lorry's cab, until the horn started again; then the lorry driver walked back to the aft stair. The lorry hid the blue hatchback from you the whole time. | ## Chapter 1 — The crossing (≈30 min) ### Scene 1.1 — The car deck **Read aloud:** The strip lights hum over three vehicles and a lot of wet steel. Tobias waits by your door, twisting a clipboard in his hands. Everyone else is already upstairs. **Available:** your car; the blue hatchback (locked; its driver is upstairs); the lorry (locked); the forward stair (its top door is solid steel, no window; any crew member can say so); the aft stair; Tobias and his clipboard. **Clues here:** - The car deck is enclosed; nobody down here can see the water or the far shore (see Setting). - Tobias's clipboard, if the player asks to see it or asks who parked where: the lane plan from the Setting, with names. Tobias adds: "Mrs. Vale bought the last ticket, 10:42, and asked special for the front of lane 1, by the forward stair. Said she gets seasick and wanted the air." - *hidden* (player looks into the blue hatchback through its windows): a buff cardboard folder on the back seat, half under a coat. - *hidden* (player searches the forward stair or its steps): a small white pharmacy-bottle cap on the bottom step. Tobias, in the same turn: "That wasn't there when I walked by at five past." **Leads to:** 1.2, 1.3, 1.4 ### Scene 1.2 — The lounge **Read aloud:** The lounge smells of fried bacon and wet coats. In the front window booth, a man in a grey coat sits slumped against the glass, head on his arms, as if asleep. The others stand well back, watching you. **Available:** the booth (his paper cup of tea, his phone, his open shoulder bag); the windows; the foredeck door; the forward stair door (solid steel, no window; any crew member can say so); question anyone (see GM instructions); the snack bar (1.3). **Public facts they volunteer:** - Lorna checked him at 11:16: no wounds, no blood, gone. "Not long, though." - Lorna came in from the foredeck at about 11:12; he already had his head down, and she thought he was asleep. Ines and Gideon both saw her walk straight past him to the back without stopping. - From 11:12 on, Lorna, Ines and Gideon were all in the lounge, and nobody went near the booth until Ines did at 11:16. - Gideon shouted at Selwood in the kiosk queue at Greyhallow (Tobias saw it). Lorna told Ines at 11:03, "That's the man who followed me for a month." Selwood complained to the captain at boarding about Tobias (the captain says so if asked about him). - Only if asked about Corinne, Ines or Gideon says: "Her boatyard over on the Greyhallow shore burned down in the spring. Still waiting on the insurance, I heard." **Clues here:** - The tea: half drunk, with an odd, sour smell. Anything more: "That's for the coroner." - The bag: open, holding a newspaper, his return ticket and a business card: "Martin Selwood, Claims Investigator, Halberd Marine Insurance." No folder. - *hidden* (player looks at or picks up the phone): the lock screen shows his last message, sent 11:10 to "Halberd office": "Fog's lifted, I can see Penmarrow. Still on for 11:50." Below it, a reply at 11:14: "Good. Bring the boatyard file." **Leads to:** 1.1, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5 ### Scene 1.3 — The snack bar **Read aloud:** A steel counter, a hot plate, a till and a curtain to a little storeroom. Ines leans on the counter, hands busy with a cloth that doesn't need folding. Gideon's half-eaten bacon roll sits on the end. **Available:** the till and its paper roll; the storeroom (shelves of milk, bread and crisps; nothing of note); Ines; Gideon. **Clues here:** - The till roll (player reads it): 11:02, one tea, card, M. SELWOOD. 11:03, one hot chocolate, cash. 11:13, one bacon roll and one coffee, cash. Nothing else since the boat left. **Leads to:** 1.2, 1.4, 1.5 ### Scene 1.4 — The wheelhouse **Read aloud:** Up the wet outside ladder, the wheelhouse is dark but for the radar's green sweep. Captain Mullery doesn't take her eyes off the fog. "Make it quick, and don't touch anything." **Available:** the captain (she won't leave the wheel); the log book; the ticket manifest; Tobias, if he came up with the player. **Clues here:** - The ticket manifest (player asks for it or reads it): foot passengers M. Selwood (10:20) and L. Fitch (10:30); vehicles G. Stroud, lorry (10:35), the player's car (10:38) and C. Vale, hatchback (10:42, cash); crew Mullery, Rourke, Calloway. The captain: "Everyone aboard is on that list. Nobody else." - *hidden* (player reads the log book): 11:00 depart Greyhallow, fog, fog signal every two minutes. 11:08 fog thinning, Penmarrow lights visible, fog signal stopped; passenger in red coat on foredeck, on the phone; tea brought up, I.C. 11:12 fog closing in, signal resumed; I.C. back to bar. 11:13 T.R. reports car deck secure. 11:16 I.C. on phone from lounge, passenger collapsed. If asked, the captain adds that the lights showed only during that clear patch, and from her chair she sees the foredeck but not inside the lounge. If asked about the red coat: "The red coat was out there on the phone the whole time the lights showed. She came in when the fog closed." **Leads to:** 1.1, 1.2, 1.5 ### Scene 1.5 — Confrontations **Read aloud:** Somewhere ahead in the fog are the lights of Penmarrow and two police officers on the landing. The passengers have gone quiet, and they are starting to look at each other. Who do you want to press? **Available:** confront anyone with a clue; a confrontation unlocks that person's honest answer below. The player may accuse at any time. **What confrontation yields:** - **Ines** (confronted with the log, or with the captain's word): admits she took the captain's tea up at 11:08 and stayed to watch the lights until 11:12. She said "storeroom" because leaving the bar unattended can cost her the job. - **Gideon** (confronted with the kiosk shouting): admits Selwood's report got his insurance claim on a stolen lorry thrown out last year, and it nearly finished him. He was down by his cab with the deckhand until the horn started again, "and you saw me, right?" - **Lorna** (confronted with "the man who followed me"): admits Selwood watched her for a month two years ago over a back-injury claim. She went out on the foredeck so she wouldn't have to sit near him, and stood with her back to the windows, on the phone, until the fog came down. - **Tobias** (confronted with Selwood's complaint): admits he'd had a pint before his shift and Selwood smelled it. He walked the deck, kept the lorry driver at his cab, then went straight up to the skipper. - **Corinne** (confronted with the car deck, the lane plan, the log or the folder): drops "never left my car" and says she went up the forward stair at ten past "for air" and looked at the lights through the door, but never went in. If Tobias hears this, he says: "That door's solid steel. There's no window in it." If asked about the folder: "My own paperwork, thank you." She will not open her car or her bag until the police arrive. **Leads to:** Endings ### Recap block (read aloud at chapter end or on resume) GM note: read only the clues the player has actually found. Fill the template; keep it to four sentences or fewer. "So far: Martin Selwood died in the lounge of the Kittiwake, somewhere in the fog between Greyhallow and Penmarrow. You have found . You still haven't settled . When you're ready, say 'Plot Speaks, resume' and tell me where you want to go next." ## Endings - **The verdict.** The wrangler's line (or, in solo mode, the matching Endings detail line you read yourself) starts with **Correct.** or **Innocent.** Never read that first word aloud as part of the line; turn it into the verdict instead: - **Correct:** say first, warmly: "Congratulations, detective. You've solved it." Then the rest of the line, then the correct-accusation ending below. - **Innocent:** say first, gently: "I'm sorry. You've accused an innocent person." Then the rest of the line, then the wrong-accusation ending below. - **Correct accusation:** after the wrangler reads the confirmation, read aloud: "The Kittiwake bumps gently against the Penmarrow landing, and the bow door groans open onto blue police lights in the fog. Nobody on the car deck says a word. Would you like to hear what became of each of them?" - **Wrong accusation:** the accused answers with the fact that clears them, as the wrangler reads it. Then ask: "Do you want one more accusation, or the full reveal?" If they want one more, first have the person named give the next unfound lead from the list, in one sentence. - **Out of time** (the player says "Plot Speaks, wrap it up" or asks to wrap up; or the player has been asked who they want to name and twice declined): read the recap block, then: "The ramp is going down at Penmarrow. If you had to name someone right now, who would it be?" Resolve as above.