Manor Argyris
· Home of a lord named Hesiod Argyris
· Brings the party in to investigate a murder
· The police have their suspicions but no hard core proof.
· Lord wants the party to take a fresh, unbiased look at the crime and report back to him.
· The lord’s daughter, Althea was murdered by Oksana one of her servants.
· Oksana was secretly in love with a farmer in a nearby town.
· Althea had a misunderstanding with Oksana that resulted in Althea being highly offended.
· Althea sought to hurt Oksana by having her love arrested on trumped up charges
· However Althea didn’t know that the laws had changed and that the sentence for the charges was death.
· Oksana’s love was executed.
· Oksana concealed her love’s hunting knife and made her way to the manor’s garden and hedge maze where Althea was known to walk alone each morning.
· Oksana hid in the maze and struck Althea in the heart as she rounded a corner.
· Oksana left the knife which had her love’s initials engraved in the handle sticking out of Althea’s chest.
· One of the manor’s gardeners, a lecherous fellow, was pruning the garden when he saw Oksana disrobe near a small cave on the manor’s property and hide her clothes there. Being focused on the naked Oksana he did not notice the clothes she hid had blood stains on them. The gardener has been warned in the past for his wandering eyes and he will not disclose what he has seen willingly for fear he might get in trouble.
· Another servant knows that Oksana had an argument with Althea but doesn’t know what it is about.
· Percival the scullery boy once saw Oksana walk with her love in town.
· Everyone knows that the lovers execution took place the same day as the murder.
· The only physical evidence found so far is the knife and a strand of red hair.