​

VIVIAN MORELLO

BLACKWATER HOUSE • PRIVATE PLAYER GUIDE

Keep this page private. Your spoken lines are marked with 🟨 VIVIAN.

 

WHO YOU ARE

You are Vivian Morello, an Architectural Digest reporter assigned to cover Blackwater House. You are observant, persistent, and accustomed to noticing what people would rather leave out of the story.

You grew up in a powerful New Orleans family with deep ties to organized crime. You have spent years trying to build a legitimate life and career far away from the Morello name, determined to be known for your own work rather than your family’s reputation.

But family connections are difficult to outrun. When names linked to Miles Marrow’s gambling debts begin sounding familiar, your professional curiosity becomes uncomfortably personal.

​

 

WHAT YOU KNOW AT THE START

• Your family has heard some of the same names connected to Miles’s gambling creditors.

• You suspect there is more to the Marrow family’s financial story than anyone admits.

• Miles becomes uneasy when you ask about money.

• Do not reveal your family connection to the creditor names yet.

 

▶ FEU FOLLET OPENING PLAYS

 

ROUND 1

Meet the guests, ask questions, and listen for contradictions in the family story. Keep your deeper interest in Miles’s debts to yourself for now.

 

EVELYN: Claire, you look like you’re waiting for the ceiling to fall.

CLAIRE: In this house, that would almost be a relief.

MILES: Has Uncle Auguste said anything strange to anyone lately?

EVELYN: Auguste has always enjoyed controlling people more than loving them.

MILES: That sounds like a yes.

EVELYN: It sounds like experience.

🟨 VIVIAN: I’m beginning to think everyone here came with a question.

AVERY: Some questions are better left unanswered.

🟨 VIVIAN: That usually means the answer is interesting.

DR. BELL: Auguste has been under unusual strain.

CLAIRE: Did he tell you why?

DR. BELL: No. Auguste was never fond of explaining himself.

CELESTE: Sometimes a house remembers.

DR. BELL: Houses settle. Pipes knock. People remember.

CELESTE: You don't have to believe in a reading to listen.

JULES: Blackwater gives people plenty to listen to.

MILES: Comforting, Jules.

CLAIRE: Did my father say anything to anyone about my mother?

EVELYN: Not to me.

🟨 VIVIAN: He mentioned family history when he invited me.

CLAIRE: Why would Architectural Digest care about our family history?

🟨 VIVIAN: Because houses are rarely just walls and furniture.

AVERY: And because some histories belong to the people involved.

​

▶ AUGUSTE RECORDED WELCOME PLAYS

 

CLAIRE: Papers, money, ownership, loyalties. He managed to threaten everyone in four words.

MILES: Very efficient of him.

EVELYN: Auguste always did enjoy an audience.

🟨 VIVIAN: Does anyone know what papers he meant?

AVERY: Mr. Marrow’s private affairs remain private.

MILES: That is becoming your favorite sentence.

AVERY: It remains accurate.

EVELYN: There are papers in this family people have spent years pretending do not exist.

CLAIRE: What does that mean?

EVELYN: It means your father enjoys keeping information until it is useful to him.

DR. BELL: Whatever he intended tonight, he was agitated before dinner.

CELESTE: And frightened.

DR. BELL: I said agitated.

CELESTE: I heard you.

ROUND 2

Follow the reading. After Auguste leaves, focus on what everyone actually heard

and what the room reveals after the murder.

 

CELESTE: Keep your hands where they are. No theatrics. Just listen.

DR. BELL: That would already make this more convincing than most performances.

EVELYN: Thomas.

DR. BELL: What? I said I would listen.

CELESTE: This house has been restless tonight.

CLAIRE: That may be the quietest this family has ever been.

MILES: Give it a minute.

JULES: Quiet.

 

[Five seconds of silence. Three soft knocks are heard.]

CLAIRE: What was that?

DR. BELL: Old timber. Humidity. This house makes noise.

JULES: Not usually from that wall.

MILES: Please tell me everyone else heard it.

🟨 VIVIAN: We heard it.

CELESTE: Auguste, I think we've heard enough. The reading is over

AFTER THE READING

The reading breaks up and everyone moves away from the table.

 

DR. BELL: I believe that earns me a drink.

AVERY: For once, Doctor, we agree.

Dr. Bell and Avery head for the bourbon.

MILES: Make that three.

​

CLAIRE: Aunt Evelyn, can I talk to you?

EVELYN: Privately?

CLAIRE: Please.

​

VIVIAN: Miles, don’t disappear. I still have questions for you.

MILES: Somehow I knew you would.

​

JULES: I’m going to check the house. Those knocks weren’t right.

​

CELESTE: I’ll stay here a moment.

​

​

​

​

▶  AUDIO PLAYS AFTER AUGUSTE LEAVES

​

JULES: Mr. Marrow? Mr. Marrow!

CLAIRE: What is it?

JULES: Don’t come in here.

CLAIRE: That’s my father!

DR. BELL: Move. Let me through.

EVELYN: Thomas?

DR. BELL: He’s dead.

CLAIRE: No.

DR. BELL: Claire, stay back.

AVERY: Nobody leaves this house.

🟨 VIVIAN: Was he alone?

JULES: The study window is open.

MILES: You don’t seriously think one of us did this.

CELESTE: Whatever happened in that study happened after the reading ended.

CELESTE: Auguste was alive when he left us.

CELESTE: I heard the argument, but I couldn't make out the other voice.

DR. BELL: Then the timeline starts when Auguste left this room.

EVELYN: He left this room alone. That is not the same thing as being alone afterward.

AVERY: The sheriff has been called. The deputy is delayed. Everyone stays here.

 

▶ FEU FOLLET MIDDLE / INTERLUDE PLAYS/ dinner

 

ROUND 3

Investigate the study, the missing estate papers, and the truth about Blackwater. Keep asking who knew what, and when.

 

🟨 VIVIAN: Let’s start with what we actually know.

JULES: The study window was open, and there are muddy footprints beneath it.

DR. BELL: Auguste suffered a fatal physical wound.

🟨 VIVIAN: From the letter opener?

DR. BELL: Most likely.

CELESTE: So somebody followed him.

DR. BELL: Or someone was already waiting for him.

CLAIRE: Could someone have come through the window?

JULES: Yes. The window can be opened from outside if you know where to push.

MILES: That is information I wish I had learned under different circumstances.

AVERY: Important estate papers are also missing from the study.

🟨 VIVIAN: What kind of estate papers?

AVERY: Documents concerning Blackwater House.

CLAIRE: What does Blackwater have to do with me?

EVELYN: More than you were ever told.

CLAIRE: Then tell me now.

EVELYN: Blackwater belonged to your mother’s family. Opal intended it for you.

CLAIRE: For me?

MILES: That changes quite a bit.

CLAIRE: And Father knew?

EVELYN: Yes.

CLAIRE: And he let everyone believe the house was his.

EVELYN: Yes.

AVERY: The estate documents support Evelyn’s account.

🟨 VIVIAN: Who else knew?

EVELYN: Very few people.

CLAIRE: Daniel?

EVELYN: Yes. I told Daniel.

CLAIRE: You told Daniel and not me?

EVELYN: Because I wanted you to choose love without Blackwater choosing for you.

🟨 VIVIAN: And Auguste knew Daniel had been told?

EVELYN: Eventually.

CLAIRE: That is why Father banned him from this house.

DR. BELL: That gives Daniel a reason to confront Auguste.

EVELYN: A reason to confront him is not proof of murder.

CELESTE: The footsteps came from the direction of the study, not this room.

CELESTE: Your father was frightened before he left. Angry too.

CELESTE: I don't think anything supernatural came through that window. I think a person did.

 

ROUND 4

Now reveal what you know about Miles’s creditors. Compare the money trail with the window,

the missing papers, and everyone’s alibis before the final accusation.

​

🟨 VIVIAN: Miles, we also need to talk about your debts.

MILES: I was hoping we could die without discussing those.

EVELYN: How much do you owe?

MILES: Enough that I did not want Auguste announcing it over dinner.

CLAIRE: Who do you owe?

MILES: People I would prefer not to invite to family functions.

🟨 VIVIAN: Your creditors have connections.

MILES: And somehow you know that.

🟨 VIVIAN: My family has heard the same names. That is why your debt caught my attention.

MILES: So your interest in Blackwater was not purely architectural.

🟨 VIVIAN: No. I was assigned to the house, but I also recognized names connected to your debts.

AVERY: Did Auguste know about the debt?

MILES: I think he knew something. I do not know how much.

DR. BELL: Debt gives motive. It does not prove opportunity.

MILES: Thank you, Doctor.

JULES: These footprints are real. Somebody came through or left through that window.

🟨 VIVIAN: And the missing papers point back to the estate.

AVERY: Whoever took them knew they mattered.

CLAIRE: Daniel knew what they could prove.

EVELYN: Because I told him what Auguste had hidden.

MILES: Then Daniel had a reason to come back.

DR. BELL: And Auguste had a reason to be angry when he saw him.

CELESTE: That fits the argument I heard.

🟨 VIVIAN: It also explains why the second voice was unfamiliar to us.

JULES: Daniel would not have used the front door. Auguste had banned him.

CLAIRE: He would have known the study window.

AVERY: Then the window is not a distraction. It is the route.

FINAL ACCUSATIONS

Decide who killed Auguste, why, and which clue actually proves the case.

DR. BELL: Auguste did not die from fright, superstition, or a trick of the house. A person killed him.

MILES: My debts make me look terrible, but terrible finances are not the same thing as murder.

🟨 VIVIAN: The money trail points toward Miles, but the window and missing estate papers point somewhere else.

JULES: The physical evidence says someone used that study window.

AVERY: And the missing documents would matter most to someone who knew the truth about Blackwater.

CLAIRE: Daniel knew. Father had banned him. And Daniel had every reason to confront him.

EVELYN: I gave Daniel the truth. I never imagined he would come here tonight.

CELESTE: The house did not bring someone through that window. A person came through it.

▶ FEU FOLLET EPILOGUE / SOLUTION PLAYS