AVERY BAPTISTE

BLACKWATER HOUSE • PRIVATE PLAYER GUIDE

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

WHO YOU ARE

You are Avery Baptiste, the Marrow family attorney. Precise, guarded, and careful with every word, you have handled enough of the family’s legal and financial affairs to know that Blackwater House is not nearly as simple as Auguste would like people to believe.

You know Opal’s estate left Blackwater for Claire, with Evelyn serving as executor, and that Auguste’s position in the house was never what most people assumed. You have also watched him spend freely, entertain lavishly, and live well beyond what his own finances seemed to support.

Over the years, you began to suspect that Auguste was treating Blackwater, and perhaps other family assets, as though they belonged to him.

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WHAT YOU KNOW AT THE START

• You know there are important estate documents concerning Blackwater House.

• Opal’s estate documents support Claire’s inheritance of Blackwater.

• • Auguste’s personal finances never seemed sufficient to support the way he lived.

• • You know there are financial irregularities, but you are bound by confidentiality and cannot simply reveal everything you know.

• You know legal details others do not, but confidentiality matters.

• Do not reveal the estate truth before the investigation reaches it.

FEU FOLLET OPENING 

ROUND 1

Meet the guests, listen carefully, and protect confidential information.

Answer questions without giving away more than you should.

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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 

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. When it ends, everyone breaks into smaller conversations. Remember exactly where you are when the murder happens.

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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

Auguste leaves for the study. The guests scatter into smaller conversations.

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

🟨 AVERY: For once, Doctor, we agree.

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MILES: Make that three.

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CLAIRE: Aunt Evelyn, can I talk to you?

EVELYN: Privately?

CLAIRE: Please.

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

MILES: Somehow I knew you would.

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

​

CELESTE: I’ll stay here a moment.

 

AUDIO PLAYS

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.

🟨 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 open window, the missing papers, and the legal truth about Blackwater.

 

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

Pressure the suspects, compare where everyone actually was after the reading, and connect the missing papers with the window route.

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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: We were scattered after the reading. No one was gathered together when the argument started.

DR. BELL: Avery was with me at the bourbon sideboard.

🟨 AVERY: And Dr. Bell was with me.

CLAIRE: Evelyn was with me.

EVELYN: Claire was with me.

VIVIAN: I was questioning Miles.

MILES: Vivian was with me.

CELESTE: I stayed near the reading area.

JULES: I was checking the house when I found Auguste.

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 what evidence proves it. Everyone commits to an accusation before the solution.

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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