The Stone Lion Inn Bed and Breakfast
Well, it’s been a little longer than a month since my last post, but life got a little crazy all of a sudden and I’m not even sure what with. I started my summer class, but that only takes two hours out of my day and the rest is filled with… something. I don’t know if the rest is full of errands, day dreaming, or chores, but I’m even finding it hard to get my readings done for my class! Although, considering most college students don’t even bother to try to do the readings, I’m probably a little ahead to begin with.
Anyway, a few weeks ago, my friend Madison took me to the
Murder Mystery Dinner at the Stone Lion Inn located in Guthrie. We were given characters to dress up as and
to ‘act out’ (which we were rather horrible at doing). Unfortunately (sort of),
when we called to make our reservation they thought that I was a Michael not a
Michaela, so we were given a male and a female character. Madison’s character was Katie LaFemme, an airheaded hostess
at the Stone Lion Inn who was having an affair with Roger Worthington
(alongside just about every female character at the party). I was Benjamin Cohen, a student at Boston College who was an
absolutely terrible waiter but was kept on the staff as a ‘service to the
community’. Or so we were told…
We got there a little earlier than most of the guests because
we were staying the night (which I definitely would NOT recommend). Don’t get me wrong, the inn is lovely, but
there are no actually locks on the doors, just a hook that you can only ‘lock’
once you are inside of the room. Not to
mention, all the staff disappears immediately after the dinner and we didn’t
have towels in our room, so that wasn’t exactly great. Regardless, we got ready in our room before
going downstairs. Madison ripped her
tights as she was putting them on, and not just a little bit either. She practically ripped them in half, so we
had to run up the street to CVS to get another pair… or three. By the time we got back and finished getting
ready, it was time to go downstairs and begin the cocktail party. Madison didn’t want to go down the stairs in
her heels and couldn’t easily bend over to put the ankle straps on, so we stood
in the middle of the living room while I hooked her ankle straps. There was a lovely older woman who commented
that she needed a friend like that. What
are friends for, right?!
Before the cocktail party began, we were given little slips
of paper that included more information about our characters that we were not
supposed to share with anyone. They also
contained clues that we would be reading out later in the evening when were
given the information that could potentially lead us to the killer, although no
one had died just yet. We had little
hints we were supposed to drop during the cocktail party as well, but Madison
and I were horrible at this. Clearly we
are not meant to be actors!
The Parlor
Next came dinner, which was absolutely delicious. We had a small salad, a green chile bisque,
and for our main course we had half of a pheasant with mashed potatoes and
vegetables (I think, I can’t really remember, but it was delicious!). At the beginning of the meal, I had a small
part to play, which pretty much just entailed me being a really horrible waiter
and getting fired, which was pretty fun.
Madison and I were sat at a table with a mother and daughter from Texas
who were doing a mini road trip. We were
supposed to stay in character throughout dinner, but that’s a really long time
to talk about history and my story was close enough to that of my character
anyway. Half way through our dinner, the
killer struck. The victim stumbled out
into the hallway and face planted onto the ground. Now, this was another guest, not one of the
workers, so he just made the decision to commit to the character and risk
injury. Although, I have to admit he was
pretty plastered before the cocktail party even started, so he probably didn’t
even feel it. I had another part to play
once this happened, which was to run out of the room because I was ‘afraid of
dead bodies’. Like, I had to run past
the dead body to do this, so I’m not really sure why that was part of the
script, but whatever. Madison was the
only one to notice anyway.
The next part of the evening consisted of returning to the
parlor to read out the clues that we had been given that would, in theory, lead
us to the killer. Pretty much every character
at the party had motive, but only a few had opportunity. After the clues were read, we divided into
the sexes to discuss the clues and come up with an individual who had motive, means,
and opportunity. Since my character was
male, I was put with the men as well, most of whom were too drunk for true
reasoning, but that just made it that much more fun. Now, since I’m not sure if they use the same
story every time, and you think that you may do this dinner in the near future
(which I would highly recommend) please skip this next paragraph so I don’t
ruin the fun for you:
The man who was murdered was Roger Worthington, a rich man
who was more than a bit of a womanizer.
Pretty much every woman at the party had slept with him or wanted to
sleep with him for one reason or another.
He was poisoned with curare which was taken from Uta, the hostess/inn
owner’s apartment during the day. Since
he had bleeding stomach ulcers, it was able to get into his blood stream.
Otherwise, it wouldn’t have killed him.
Now, only about 7 people had access to the apartment (including my twin
brother who decided not to show up to the party apparently). We were given the clue that Roger was very
picky about everything in life, to the point that the inn only served him a
specific water when he came and only the staff would know this. That narrowed the list of suspects down to
five: Uta and Yvonne, both of whom own the place, me and my absentee brother,
and Katie, aka Madison. I had a strong
suspicion who the killer was, but when we divided into groups to discuss the clues,
the men were set on their suspect and who was I to argue! Although, in all
fairness, I had information that they did not.
My little slip of paper told me that I was not actually a student or a
waiter, but that I was a Nazi hunter who was looking for the couple who killed
my father during the war in Paris.
Earlier that week, me and my twin had killed the man, but we were still
looking for his girlfriend. Little did
everyone else know, Uta was the girlfriend and it was her we were trying to
kill. Roger had taken Uta’s place at the
dinner table so he had drank her water, which was laced with curare. Funnily enough, even if she had been the one
to drink the water, it wouldn’t have killed her because it has to enter the
blood stream. So, not only was I a
terrible waiter, I couldn’t even commit murder properly!
Anyway, when the groups returned to the parlor, the
spokesperson of the group had to stand up and declare who their suspect was and
how/why they had committed murder. While
the groups had different suspects, neither were right and the killer got away!
Although, it would have taken some intense concentration during the clue
reading and some serious thinking to actually come up with the right killer,
and some paying attention during the dinner.
All in all, it was actually a lot of fun to do! The people were great, the food was great,
and it was pretty funny watching all the men staying in character despite being
drunk. I would definitely recommend going to it, and there are usually Groupons
that pop up every now and then that make it super affordable. However, don’t bother staying the night. It’s a little pricey and totally not worth
it. The website says that the event will
last until about midnight, if not later, which is why we chose to stay the
night. It ended at 9pm and we didn’t
bring books or games or anything. There
was no television or internet either and most of the people were quite a bit
older than us, not to mention they left to go to the bar as soon as the even
was over anyway. DO the dinner, DON’T stay
the night!
