#malps spoilers

[murdurinthealps]

Murder in the Alps valentines from official Facebook and Twitter.

[room-on-broom]

Oi oi-! ;D

[heroofthreefaces]

Preview panel only. Click here for full cartoon. Or see the on-site navigation tutorial. Or see this tumblog’s FAQ. Cartoons may contain unmarked spoilers. Cartoons linked at about 10:00 Central US are new and link posts are pinned to the top of the blog. Cartoons linked at about 22:00 are from the archive and are only pinned during annual summer hiatus of new cartoons. Thanks for reading.

[Image description: Preview panel for the comic strip at the link. Daniel Jackson, Major Carter, Teal’c, and Colonel O’Neill are standing in front of the gate in the gate room, equipped to go through. Carter is saying, “So the MALP identified that this planet is definitely inhabited. And there are also probably Goa'uld there because it stopped transmitting almost as soon as it saw inhabitants.” Unfortunately there are not image descriptions at the main Hero Of Three Faces site. End description.]

[viviantimmet]

Fear Soup Theory

Jonny keeps telling us that Smirke’s theory of the 14 fears is a severely flawed framework, so I’ve been trying to come up with a better one. It’s finally gotten to a point where I feel like I can share it, so here we go :)) Spoilers up to 197 under the cut

So basically, I imagine the fears as a Soup that becomes what it needs to be, flows into reality and takes shape based on where it is or who its interacting with. It has no agency, only the general desire for fear and to consume the world.

When poured into the shape of death it may crave death, and when poured into the shape of manipulations it may enact a plan. But these things aren’t inherent to it, and they don’t originate from it. Rather, they are things other minds, human or animal, impress upon it. Let’s use the Web as an example, since it has the most tendency to seem agent. Annabelle attributes the plan to escape the doomed world through The Place At Hilltop Road to a fear entity, but she is mistaken. 

No fear entity made the plan. Rather, the plan is built out of the smaller plans and fears of its avatars, the ones that realized what might happen long ago, flowing into eachother and interweaving. 

Now this is the fun part. There is still an agent here larger than Annabelle herself. It’s just not a fear entity. The Mother of Puppets, as Annabelle worships it, is the collective of avatars and monsters working towards this escape plan. The Soup was merely a tool. 

The same can be said about most of the fears actually. 

The Beholding is not fear entity, but rather the inevitable existence of those trying to catalogue the Soup’s effects. And more recently, that tendency coopted by Jonah Magnus to work towards his ritual. 

The Spiral is the efforts of the Distortion and Gabriel the Sculptor towards their ritual, and thereafter, just the Distortion living its life.

The Stranger is the Circus of the Other and those they deemed similar enough to them to recruit for their rituals.

The Dark is the People’s Church of the Divine Host (without them there’s no way fear of darkness would’ve been its own category.)

The Hunt is the tendency for monster hunters to accidentally sop up some of the Soup and become monsters themselves. 

Etcetera.

The Flesh is interesting, because it's composed of two different groups that use radically different fears. Like seriously, going by types of fear, if The Spiral (lies, false faces, incomprehensibility) and The Stranger(unfamiliarity, wrong faces, the unknown) are different fears, then the boneturner(insecurity, malformation body horror) and the Haans(objectification, gore body horror) ought to be as well. 

But this just supports my framework. The being representing the Spiral: The Distortion(and formerly its partner Gabriel the Sculptor), and the group representing the Stranger: the Circus, have both enacted separate rituals, and acted against each other, marking them as separate agents; whereas it seems the Haans may have recruited some followers/victims of the boneturner for their ritual, and aside from that neither group has had enough of a goal to act against anyone really.

Since we know that, 

rituals being a thing was Smirke’s idea in the first place, and, 

the Soup doesn’t provide any guidance for their form, 

we can easily attribute this discrepancy to a failure of interpretation, rather than some Soup-given instinct to recruit within one’s fear classification. As such, it becomes clear that the real origin of said classifications is simply the array of major players/ ritual attempts Smirke was aware of when crafting his theory.

My framework also neatly explains why those more entrenched in fear culture weren’t really that worried about The Extinction. It was just some weird one-offs, and there are plenty of those. Sure they don’t fit neatly into other classifications, but neither does Angela from Piecemeal, or Sergei Ushanka, and I’m sure we all remember episode 5. And, yeah it has a domain, but so do like, two different types of malpractice, political corruption (from the inside), academia, giving a eulogy for someone you hate, and ants. Fear is fear is fear.

So what does “a fear being born” look like in my framework? For an example, let’s create The Monotony. Say someone working an office job has one of those one-off run ins with fear, not too dissimilar from the infinite suburbs episode, but with work. Maybe the only way for them to cope during it was to embrace the fear, as so often happens. They start a cult about it, and maybe write a leitner disguised as some kind of self-help book, and fairly quickly Monotony becomes a theme. People start saying, oh! a new fear's emerging! But they are wrong. Rather, a new fear influencer is emerging.

Tl;dr: There is only one entity: the Fear Soup. Whenever the Soup appears to have agency, it’s really just being used someone/thing in our world. On its own, all it “wants” is more fear. 

[room-on-broom]

Excuse me. Just got something in my eye.

[murdurinthealps]

I love it when hindsight completely changes the way you look at a scene.

It’s terrifying to think of what might have happened if Otto hadn’t come to join them outside.

[room-on-broom]

Spoilers but the puppy eyes. Screw protocol, Anna's said pretty please with a cherry on top

[murdurinthealps]

SPOILERS!!!

I just finished the dada killer and bro I was so sad when judit died cause I kinda shipped her and Anna together D: I mean it probably wouldn’t have happened but a girl can dream (except when one of the characters is dead lmao)

ikr???

I'm honestly a little disappointed that they killed her off, since her character and their relationship still had a lot of potential. I loved their dynamic so much and I’m sad that we won’t be seeing more of it.

(On the other hand... I am looking forward to seeing how much it’s going to affect Anna emotionally in future chapters...)

[room-on-broom]

Let's get this party started-!🥳🍹🍸

[murdurinthealps]

I really loved the Dada killer! The storyline was great and it was visually spectacular as always. Although...

(Dada killer spoilers btw)

.

.

.

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I don't understand why they made Oscar the killer. Why not leave it at Ruben? He could've been a much better candidate... Perhaps envious of Judit's success and empowered by Iris' presence, he creates the murder scenes to surpass his wife's fame.

Or maybe Iris should've been the killer. Having tried her hand at Dada, but ruthlessly taken apart by Vanessa's critiques, and finally killing her out of desire for vengeance, only to understand that her talent isn't in writing, but killing.

As it stands, I think the conclusion was a bit... Lackluster. Oscar was a background character, even more so than Ulli, but they made him into the villain in the last 5 minutes of playtime.

What do you think?

(answer is below cut due to spoilers)

Honestly, I think that Oskar being the killer was fine, but I definitely see your point about it feeling a bit rushed, though. Maybe they could have hinted at his true identity a bit more, thrown a bit more suspicion onto him, something like that.

Although, his time as a full-on villain could have been brief because it’s very likely we haven’t seen the last of him, yet.

To me, Ruben seems a little too obvious. Before the chapter came out, I thought the silhouette in the opening was going to be the killer, but when they introduced Ruben so early in the story, I started to doubt that.

Still, it is interesting to think of alternate scenarios where a different character is the killer...

[murdurinthealps]

Helmut: Well, Claudia, you know what they say...

Helmut: If at first you don't succeed, you try, try, and try-

Claudia: A gun?

Helmut:

[murdurinthealps]

Is it bad that I was kinda rooting for Anna and Judit?

But then... :(

I feel you, anon. I feel you.

Such a tragic end to a good character and relationship...

[murdurinthealps]

How to Escape the Museum

This particular minigame gave me a lot of trouble, so I thought I’d post a guide here on how to complete it for everyone.

This is the starting position below:

The mechanics are almost exactly the same as the minigame where Luigi escapes the cemetery in Exiled Dead.

The guards will move back and forth on set paths. Their lights cover two spaces in front of them, and if you step into their lights, you will get caught. You can also get caught by surprise when they turn around, so be mindful of that. It is super easy to get cornered, too. If you get stuck, just walk into the light and reset.

A useful thing to note is that you can move onto a space a guard is currently occupying, since you all move simultaneously. Be very careful, though, since you can easily get caught when they turn around.

The trick is to get to this space above the colored crate (like above)...

...and push it one space down.

After that, it’s only a matter of getting past the bottom right guard, and then you’re free!

Let me know if this helps!

[murdurinthealps]

Helmut: Okay, you need to kill that guy, but make it seem like an accident.

Claudia: Say no more.

[Later]

Anna: Looks like the killer beat him to death with a crowbar and then placed a banana peel by his feet.

[room-on-broom]

Luigi: Anna, what are you digging around for? Are you looking for clues?

Anna: fishing lures :)

[murdurinthealps]

Deadly Snowstorm Diary Entries

I replayed Deadly Snowstorm and got screenshots of Anna’s diary entries from the chapter. Let me know if you want me to do more of these.

Images and transcripts are under the cut bc there are a lot (and also spoilers).

Name: Anna Myers Address: Orellistrasse 21, 7, Zürich

1932/12/03  21:53

[A photograph of the lobby of Hotel Reger.]

I finally reached Hotel Reger! It’s a delightfully cozy little place, tucked away deep in the Swiss Alps. Unfortunately, the trip was a trial, and an Alpine snowstorm made the journey treacherous.

Luckily, I managed to arrive safely and in one piece. The hotel is really beautiful, and Otto the owner was very nice to me.

Although he seemed worried... Some of the room keys and the guest photo album have gone missing, but I think he just lost them somewhere, and they will be found eventually.

1932/12/04  09:32

I’ve finally met all the guests that are staying in the hotel. Except for one, Mr. Adam Kinsky, a physics professor, but I guess I’ll meet him soon.

[A list of the other guests with pictures, except for Adam Kinsky.]

Otto Reger - the hotel owner

Walter McCain - a realtor

Giovanni Rossi - an opera singer

Charles Clark - the professor

Christian Petersen - a wealthy businessman

Claudia Perret - Christian’s nurse

Hans Lenz - a priest

Ulla Lund - a secretary

Max Hartmann - a doctor

Adam Kinsky - missing for now

1932/12/04  09:39

Mr. Kinsky is nowhere to be found. Some of the guests are searching for him, but the spare key to hiss room is missing. We will need to break down the door. He might be unwell, Claudia said he was complaining about his heart.

[A photograph of Otto and Walter attempting to open Prof. Kinsky’s door.]

“Otto and Walter are very worried about Mr. Kinsky.”

1932/12/04  09:56

Adam Kinsky is dead! We found him locked in his room. It looks like a heart attack, there was nothing anyone could have done to help him. Everyone is shocked, everyone is sad, everyone is trying to figure out what to do. Someone needs to take charge.

[A photograph of Otto and Walter with Prof. Kinsky’s dead body.]

“Otto and Walter discussing what to do with Mr. Kinsky’s body.”

1932/12/04  10:13

I tried to call the police for help, but the phone was broken. I tried fixing it, but the line seems to be dead, so we can’t contact anyone. This is getting pretty nerve-wracking.

[A photograph of Otto standing next to a smoking telephone.]

“Otto looking dismayed by the unfortunate turn of events.”

1932/12/04  11:29

I thought about walking to the nearest town to get help, but yesterday’s blizzard covered the only road to the town, and no one can get in or out. Poor Mr. Kinsky, and poor us, because his dead body is here to stay.

[A photograph of a crashed car, half-buried in snow.]

“A car found after the snowstorm.”

1932/12/04  19:19

Well, it’s official, we’re stuck here until the road is cleared. Otto says there is nothing we can do but wait. And now we have a new problem: Dr. Hartmann and Ulla, the Swedish lady, didn’t show up for supper. We are going to search for them...

[A photograph of the guests seated around the table.]

“Guests are looking distressed.”

1932/12/04  20:02

[A photograph of Walter, Otto, and Claudia gathered around Ulla’s dead body.]

We found Ulla, she was dead in her room. I can’t believe it’s another heart attack... And when we found Dr. Hartmann, he couldn’t explain his movements.

[A photograph of Dr. Hartmann sitting on his bed.]

Something strange is happening here. It is no coincidence that two people died on the same day. I need to keep my eyes open. Dr. Hartmann has some explaining to do.

1932/12/04  21:54

We examined Ulla’s body and found a tiny mark on her neck, and there was some strange acidic liquid on the floor. Walter thinks it might have been used to kill her. I wonder if Adam Kinsky has a similar mark.

There has to be a pattern.

[A close-up of the mark on Ulla’s neck and another photograph of the bottle of acid.]

“Poor Ulla.”

1932/12/04  22:41

Adam Kinsky has the exact same mark on his neck! And someone was definitely looking for something in his bags.

Their deaths were no accidents!

If someone did kill both of them, then it was someone with medical knowledge. Could it be Dr. Hartmann?

[A close-up of the mark on Prof. Kinsky’s neck and a photograph of his open suitcase.]

“Are Mr. Kinsky’s and Ulla’s deaths related in some way?”

1932/12/05  09:15

Professor Clark showed us an interesting trick today. He claim that his team has found an ancient Vedic immortality elixir. Whether it’s true or not, the drink creation process was amazing.

Professor Clark is still trying to figure out what ingredients it requires, and how to perform the bizarre ritual to make the elixir.

[A photograph of Prof. Clark seated at the table.]

“Professor Clark and his elixir experiment.”

1932/12/05  11:05

I found a mysterious note from the doctor. It seems he wants me to come to the backyard, but what does he want from me? Is he the killer? And does he want to kill me? I must proceed with caution. Maybe I should tell the others?

[A photograph of the note Anna received.]

“The secret note from the doctor.”

1932/12/05  11:56

There is definitely a murderer somewhere in the hotel! Dr. Hartmann is the latest victim. When I went to meet him, I noticed blood near the entrance, and then I found his body covered in blood. Walter was there too, and he was armed with a gun. He had the same note I did. Maybe it wasn’t him, maybe he was lured there just like me, or maybe not?

This killing wasn’t like the others. This one was violent. Could it be that someone else was suspicious about the doctor and confronted him? Who could have done it? Nothing adds up so far...

[A photograph of Walter standing over Dr. Hartmann’s dead body.]

“Walter standing with the gun.”

1932/12/05  12:54

Otto has just told everyone that Dr. Hartmann has been murdered. He is sure that there is a killer in this hotel. None of us feel safe now. Personal items belonging to the guests have started to disappear. Professor Clark is missing his passport, Mr. Petersen is missing his gun, and Giovanni found his luggage ransacked in his room. Otto also reported that some spare keys have gone missing.

This cozy hotel is hiding something ugly within its walls.

[A photograph of the (remaining) guests seated around the table.]

“The guests are all frightened, something strange is happening!”

1932/12/05  19:12

Someone tried to kill Claudia! We heard a scream and rushed to her room. She was scared out of her wits and said someone attacked her in the dark.

The murderer wasn’t successful this time, but one thing is certain: they are getting careless.

The last murder was reckless, and this one was a failed attempt.

Walter was the first one on the scene, but where had he come from, and how did he get here so quickly?

[A photograph of Walter, Father Lenz, and Otto comforting Claudia.]

“Poor Claudia is in shock.”

1932/12/06  08:11

You could cut the tension with a knife. Every dark corner of the hotel feels dangerous and frightening. Father Lenz says he has seen some strange things. Everyone wants to get out of here as soon as possible. And now Mr. Petersen is missing... I fear that even worse things are to come.

[A photograph of the (remaining) guests around the table.]

“We need to stick together for safety, even if the murderer is still among us.”

1932/12/06  09:14

Another guest is dead. Mr. Petersen was found near the mountain path, dead from a knife wound, his blood had frozen in the snow.

He must have been lying there for a while. Claudia thinks he might have committed suicide, but I suspect he was killed. There is no way to know for sure. If the deaths continue at this pace, the breakfast table will be empty by tomorrow. We must get to the bottom of this.

[A photograph of Mr. Petersen’s dead body lying in the snow.]

“Could Otto be the killer? He knows every person here, he knows some information about each and every one of them, and he knows every corner and crevice of the hotel grounds.”

1932/12/06  12:39

I don’t know what to think anymore...

Walter is looking more and more suspicious. I’m not the only one who thinks he might be the murderer: Claudia and Otto remarked that he is always first on the scene of the murders.

We need to break into his room. It might contain some clues.

[A photograph of Otto and Claudia in the cellar.]

“I’m gathering more and more clues, but I can’t jump to any conclusions just yet.”

1932/12/06  13:02

Walter is definitely hiding something. He had a book written by Professor Clark in his room. Could he have stolen it? Could he be the one stealing things? What if he’s the killer?

What if he’s after the Professor? We need to find him, before it’s too late!

[A photograph of Otto and Claudia looking through Walter’s things.]

“I’m glad Otto and Claudia are still alive...”

1932/12/06  13:18

We rushed to Professor Clark’s room, and found him there with Walter. The professor assured us that everything was all right, and he was just sharing his Vedic research with Walter, who claims to be a fan of Professor Clark’s work. That might explain why he had the book.

But Walter could be lying, maybe he planned to kill the professor, but we interrupted him...

Walter also pointed out inconsistencies in Claudia and Giovanni’s stories... So Walter has been snooping around as well.

But right now our priority is the find Giovanni.

[A photograph of Otto and Claudia confronting Prof. Clark and Walter.]

“The professor seems to trust Walter.”

1932/12/06  17:42

We couldn’t find Giovanni in his room, so we searched for clues. We found the rest of the broken record pieces in his room, which means that he was in the backyard when Mr. Petersen was killed. Giovanni has some explaining to do. We really need to find him.

The list of possible suspects is growing...

[A photograph of Otto, Walter, and Claudia in Giovanni’s room.]

“Giovanni is missing.”

1932/12/06  19:50

We found Giovanni drunk, he admitted taking a bottle of wine from the cellar, but he was too incoherent to explain his actions.

He might have been faking drunkenness, so we tied him up in the hall until the proper authorities can get here.

And now I feel that Claudia knows more than she is letting on.

[A photograph of Giovanni in the cellar with a bottle of wine and a photograph of Walter, Otto, and Father Lenz, tying up Giovanni.]

“Giovanni’s drunken ramble was incomprehensible...”

1932/12/06  21:46

With Giovanni tied up, I began to look for more clues... At almost every crime scene, the clues indicate that he was near the victims at the time they died. The evidence all points towards Giovanni! I hope that this horror will finally come to an end.

[A photograph of Otto, Walter, and Father Lenz tying up Giovanni.]

“I am starting to believe that Giovanni is the murderer...”

1932/12/07  07:16

My suspicions were wrong... We found Walter’s dead body on the table next to Giovanni this morning. But Giovanni was still tied up, so he can’t have been the murderer. The killer is someone else!

We decided it’s safest for everyone to stay int he hall until the police can get here. Everyone is a suspect at this stage, but the murderer can’t kill us all.

Or so we hope...

[A photograph of the remaining guests with Walter’s dead body.]

“The guests are starting to panic!”

1932/12/07  12:06

Otto told me that the phone lines are working, and the road is being cleared. If I am to catch the murderer I need to do it before they escape. With the roads open, I might find something along the road from the hotel.

[A photograph of Otto and a photograph of the road leading to the cabin.]

1932/12/07  14:02

I think I have some clues to what is happening. I reached the small cabin hear the mountains. It seems that someone from the town was watching the cabin, they started signaling me with a mirror, and it has given me a few ideas as to who the culprit might be.

[A photograph of the cabin and a photograph of the attic.]

“The killer might have spent some time here...”

1932/12/07  15:14

I searched the rooms, and found what I was looking for! I know who is responsible for the murders. It’s time to confront everybody with the news.

[A photograph of the postcard of Munich and a photograph of Dr. Hartmann’s letter.]

1932/12/08  10:04

I gathered the remaining guests in the hall, and revealed that Claudia was the killer! She was ruthless and clinical at first, but after so many murders she became sloppy, and left obvious clues behind. The police have taken her away, she will remain in prison for a very long time.

[A photograph of Otto on the front steps of Hotel Reger.]

“Otto relieved that the horror has finally come to an end.”