Magical Beasts

**Magical Beasts** is a case featured in *Criminal Case*. It takes place in the *A Look at Medusa* chapter of Graecita.

## Plot

**You are how experiencing the story in third-person view**

In Graecita, at the palace, Kaleb and the queen are seen waiting in the living room for Shirley to summon KJ into the room for them. Once Shirley dropped him at the living room, KJ stood awkwardly in the room, until his father called for him to sit next to him, and he did avoiding eye contact with his father. The pair were silent at first, but then Kaleb sighed and told his son that he is not angry with him. KJ looked at his father with confusion and Kaleb continued by confessed that he was disappointed at him for faking a disability and there’s nothing to excuse it, but at the same time he understands why he did it and admitted that he was not the greatest father figure. Kaleb then apologized to KJ for not being there to raise him and promised that he’ll try to be more present in his life instead of simply sheltering him and having the maids do the parenting for her. However, the tender father-son moment was cut short when a furious Norah barged into the living room door, with a worried Marionette trying to calm her down. Norah immediately came at Kaleb, trying to punch him but Kaleb acted Swift and managed to avoid her blows. He then asked Marionette why Norah was pissed off and all what Marionette had to say is Madelina’s name to know what’s bothering her. After failing to hit Kaleb, Norah proceeded to yell at him for sleeping with her dead sister, and Kaleb tried to relieve her by telling her it’s been a week since he had sex with her and had promised Leonora not to sleep with her again, but it failed to calm Norah down. Leonora tried to intervene and stop the fight, but Norah warned her to stay out of this as they are “family problems”. When Norah realized what she had said, she immediately backtracked from her statement, apologizing to Leonora for excluding her from the “family picture”, but Leonora had lost her nerve and the next second, the scene switches to Kaleb and Norah being thrown outside the palace by Leonora using her wind-controlling powers. Both Norah and Kaleb trued to apologize to Leonora, but she told them she doesn’t want hear what they have to say and that they’re both banished from the palace until they settle their “family problems” and she left them a donkey carriage to look for another place to sleep at. Once Leonora was out of sight, Norah gave Kaleb a hard punch on the groin before they both rode the carriage.

Meanwhile at the *Hamilton Laurent’s Revenge*, Madelina is at the ship’s “shed”, looking at herself on the mirror as she zips up the white overalls on an outfit she had put together and once she topped it off with a ship captain’s hat, she posed to Chet and Chase who she urged to come with her and asked them for they’re approval on the outfit. Chet blushed and told her she looks great but Chase, on the other hand, told her she looked like a “baby prostitute” before finally asking her why she had brought them here. Madelina pulled out a napkin to wipe off her non-existent tears and told the two boys that she made the decision to move out of the palace and needed to find a new place to stay at, but couldn’t go back to the witches’ coven thanks to the “bald Belinda” incident and so she decided to join the crew for the *Hamilton Laurent’s Revenge*. Chase glared at Madelina and asked her what part are they supposed to play in this, where Madelina giggled and told him that she thought that Chet would like to join too and since Chase decided to come, he may like to do saw too. But Chase didn’t and he started arguing with Madelina. While the two are fighting in the shed, Zachary is outside fishing and laughing with Natalie, without his shirt, while Mia is staring at him from a distance, remembering what he said at the palace about breaking up with Maylin, wondering if she has a chance with him. After giving it a deep thought, she went back to stare at Zachary but he was not here and while she was wondering where he went, a figure jumped out of the water, landing next to her and made her startle. The figure turned out to be Zachary who started teasing her and asked her what she was staring at, which made Mia flush and she tried to play it off as just “curiosity” over what he and Natalie were doing. After Zachary gave her an explanation, Mia decided to take her chance and asked him how he was coping with his and Maylin’s breakup. Zachary sighed and told her that he is still not over it as he and Maylin knew each other for 8 years and he seriously believed they’d last, but he is starting to accept what happened by reminding himself what his late father used to tell him, that “Sometimes good things fall apart so that better things fall together”. As Zachary and Mia were talking, they hear Natalie screaming for help and when they went to check the net, they saw that she managed to lure fish into their way but ended up being trapped in the net herself. After having a good laugh about it, Zachary pulled the net into the ship and went into the shed to look for something sharp to free Natalie and ended up catching Madelina showing off a chopped onion to Chet and Chase to use for faking tears. When Madelina heard the door open, she immediately decides put on a show by throwing herself at Zachary’s bare arms, attracting the attention of everyone at the ship. When asked what she was doing at the ship, Madelina used the onion stuffed in her napkin to water her eyes and she started “crying” about how she has nowhere to go and was wondering if they could accept her in the team. The crew remained silent, but Mia immediately refused and when Madelina questioned her for that decision, Mia rolled eyes and admitted that she isn’t fond of her and asked for a reason why they should let her in. Madelina gave Chet and Chase a signal, who brought out a large American flag behind Madelina, who started preaching a made-up quote of Emmeline Pankhurst she found from the internet and by the time she finished her speech, Mehitabel the cat spotted her and jumped right into her arms, starting to lick her. Mia eventually gave in and welcomed Madelina in the team, however she will have to sleep with the boys in the lower deck, on a hammock. Madelina didn’t like the deal and decided to leave the ship, but when she realized they were sailing, she fainted. Yoyo and Chet rushed to her aid, and while Yoyo was arguing with Mia, Ophelia decided to let Madelina have her room. When Madelina heard that, she immediately “woke up”, telling Chet and Chase to carry her stuff to “her room”. After this was settled, Mary announced that they are getting close to their destination.

Once the crew arrived to Clew Bay, Natalie was given a white dress, beige jacket and stilettos to blend in with the locals and hoped that the mist will hide her green complexion. Madelina liked the “Victorian” aesthetic of the bay and decided to drag Chet and Chase with her to have her photos taken, leaving the rest of the group. With Madelina and the two boys out of sight, the rest of the crew continued walking behind Mary Read, who seemed to be in a really bad mood. Curious but nervous, Mia asked Mary if she and Anne Bonny were rivals, but Mary denied it, claiming that she and Anne were pretty close and the latter even invited her into threesomes with her husband. However, Mary kind of has bitter feelings toward, because after Calico Jack’s ship was captured and the two women were taken to prison, Anne Bonny found a way to escape but left Mary behind who died of a fever. As the crew were speaking with Mary, she spotted an inn and knowing Anne as a strong drinker who wouldn’t resist getting a drink, decided that it would be a good idea to pay it a visit. But as they got close to the inn, they heard a girl’s scream coming from the inn’s pigsty and when Natalie and Mia went to check what’s going on they found the dismembered body parts of a young she-pirate being fed to the pigs. A sight that disgusted the two girls.

**You are now playing as Mia Loukas**

The screaming woman was a saloon girl called Ernestine Krause who was questioned about the murder and she explained that she had come to feed the pigs before taking them to the market to be butchered and claimed that she saw nothing of the murder. When asked if she knew who the dead pirate was, she identified her as Isadora Haddonfield, as a member of Anne Bonny’s crews, a revelation that shocked the girls, who asked Ernestine if she saw Anne Bonny around, information which the saloon girl refused to answer as Clew Bay is no place for “snitches”. Disappointed, Natalie and Mia decided to search the market to find Isadora’s murderer and they found two more suspects other than Ernestine: Brady Nolan the butcher and grumpy herbalist, Agnes Leek. They then went into the inn to reunite with their friends, where they got surrounded by saloon girls who flirted hard with the boys, Chase in particular. Once the saloon girls managed to snatch Chase and Chet too, Madelina who had been glaring at girls, pointed out how she was getting bad vibes from them, but the rest of the group didn’t take her seriously and simply accused her of “jealousy”. Suddenly, another pirate crew approached the table and believing that they were being ambushed, the group were about to draw their weapons, but Mary told them not to, revealing that she knows these people.

After the group put down their weapons, an old and stocky red-haired she-pirate appeared showed herself to them and it was none other than the infamous Anne Bonny. Anne came to great her old friend, Mary Read who didn’t return the affection and confronted her for leaving her at Jamaica, making the encounter go from scary to friendly to awkward. After Anne tried to come up with excuses for what she did, Natalie and Mia interrogated her and informed her of Isadora’s death and although she didn’t care for her crew member’s death, she saw that as a personal attack towards her and demanded that they find out who murdered her. The duo decided to investigate the inn and they found reasons to suspect the saloon owner and singer, Annette Chevrolet. They also found out that Isadora scammed Brady into buying snake oil, believing it was a cure to balding and that Agnes Leek is not just a herbalist but is in fact the goddess Hecate in disguise. Natalie and Mia went back to the inn to recap the case, but was interrupted by a fight going on there.

The fight was between Ernestine and Anne Bonny’s husband, Calico Jack who was accusing the harlot of stealing his money sack by using her charms against him. After calming down the tension in the inn, Natalie and Mia returned to the investigation where they discovered that Isadora had once crashed the inn and ordered many foods and drinks but ended up leaving a huge bill unpaid and when the duo heard of this they decides to speak with Annette and Ernestine, who was a waitress at that night and got in serious trouble for letting Isadora go. They also learned that Anne was insecure of her age and suspected that her husband was sleeping with the young and beautiful Isadora, behind her back. Natalie and Mia then uncovered Ernestine Krause as the killer after collecting enough evidence.

Ernestine acted disgusted by the murder allegations, accusing Natalie and Mia of only incriminating her for being the least “respectable” suspect, but after the girls showed her their evidence, she got pissed off and confessed to killing Isadora, claiming she only did it under Annette’s orders. Natalie was shocked by this and asked Ernestine if Annette was seriously that bitter over Isadora not paying her bills but Ernestine laughed and told her Annette couldn’t care less about the money wasted as the whole inn business is just their way to lure male customers. Ernestine smirked and revealed that Annette is a sorceress, that “Annette Chevrolet” is just an alias and her real name is Circe. She then explained that the inn is actually a trap and that Circe hired her and the other saloon girls to seduce the men into getting drunk and following them into the pigsty where Circe would then appear and turn them into “beasts” (pigs) and right after they are transformed, they would take them to Brady, who has no idea of what’s going on at the inn, in order for him to butcher them and turn them into bacon strips which the girls would then eat. Natalie and Mia were disgusted over what they heard but that didn’t answer the question of why Ernestine killed Isadora, so they asked her and she admitted that the reason why Isadora forgot to pay her bill last week was not because she was “too drunk” but because she witnessed Circe doing her witchcraft, which made her freak out and rush back to *The William* out of fear. A week later, when Circe heard that *The William* is arriving to Clew Bay, she instructed Ernestine to attack Isadora and kill her before she tells the whole town about what she saw. Ernestine delightfully explained how she butchered Isadora, dismembered her and right after doing that, she she left her body parts at the pigsty for the beasts to feed on her. But when she heard Mia and her crew approach the inn, she had to act quick so she quickly hid the knife and screamed to avoid suspicion. Natalie and Mia took Ernestine to Anne Bonny who decided to keep the girl tied at her ship until they start sailing where she’ll be forced to walk the plank.

After handing Ernestine over to Bonny, Natalie and Mia rushed to the inn to warn they’re male friends about Circe, glad to see that Zachary, Hasuro and Maverick were all still human. Zachary was glad to see the girls back and told Mia that Mary had spoken with Anne about her prisoners and that she would like to speak with her. Suddenly, Madelina rushed to them panicking and when Natalie asked her what is she freaking out about, Madelina took a deep breath and told her it’s about Chet.

Worried about Chet, Natalie and Mia asked Madelina why she’s freaking out about Chet. Madelina explained that she haven’t seen him nor Chase for an entire hour and she fears that they either got lost or something bad happened to them. Natalie asked Madelina where was the last place she saw them and when Madelina revealed that they were following the saloon girls, Natalie was horrified, knowing what the girls’ purpose in the bar. Natalie and Mia immediately rushed to the pigsty, they’re fears being confirmed when they found Chase’s plaid jacket, torn and left on the mud. After finding Chase’s jacket, the duo went back to Madelina, who was still worried over Chet’s safety and asked him if they found him. But instead of telling her that they did, Natalie revealed to Madelina who “Annette Chevrolet” really is and that Chet and Chase were led into a trap where they were turned into pigs. When Madelina heard this, she got pissed off and asked where they learned that and when they mentioned Ernestine, Madelina stomped her way into Anne Bonny’s ship and demanded the pirates guarding the ship to take her to Ernestine Krause. Ernestine was standing, tied up to a pole and Madelina demanded the pirates to free her, which the men were going to refuse but when they saw the fire in Madelina’s eyes, they got afraid and followed her commands. Ernestine stretched her back, thanking Madelina for freeing her but instead of welcoming her, Madelina demanded that she tell them where Chet and Chase is. Ernestine pretended she had no idea what Madelina was talking about, but Madelina was not here to play and she grabbed Ernestine by the hair, dragged her across the ship and beat her up with her slippers to make her talk. Ernestine begged Madelina to stop, promising that she’d do anything and so, Madelina asked her which pigs at the inn are Chase and Chet. Ernestine asked Madelina for a description on the two boys and after getting that info, she laughed, telling Madelina that she had taken those “pigs” to Brady in order to get butchered. As Madelina was standing horrified, Ernestine took that as an opportunity to run back to Circe and Madelina threw her slipper at her, which managed to her hit on the head one more time but the force wasn’t strong enough to knock her out. Madelina, Natalie and Mia took no time to go into the market and look for Brady, who was one second away from using his cleaver to kill a grown but skinny pig, which they assumed must be Chet. The trio luckily managed to stop him on time and when he heard of who Annette really is and that the two pigs that were sent to him used to be human-beings, he was disgusted and agreed to let Madelina, Natalie and Mia to take them to safety.

Zachary and Mia went to see Anne Bonny and caught her midst an argument with Mary Read. Curious, Zachary asked what they were fighting about, where Anne grinned and told them that it was nothing and that Mary told her what they came here for and she agreed to to free the Graecitan soldiers she and her crew had captured. Zachary was glad to hear that but then Mary revealed that Anne has some conditions for them. Zachary frowned and asked Anne what her conditions are, who grinned and told them that she wants to play a game of poker with them. If they win, Anne frees the prisoners, but if Anne wins, she will still free the prisoners, however, they would have to help her and her crew in a quest. Zachary and Mia questioned the rest of their friends on the conditions, who found them fair and agreed to the deal. After getting their friends’ approval,  the duo went to the market to buy some cards to play with and they found them in a basket full of gambling material. After that, they went back to their friends and they received advice from Maverick and Hasuro on how to play poker, as they were the only ones along Mary with experience on the game. After receiving training, they all went to face Anne Bonny and her crew and played as hard as they could, but sadly it wasn’t enough for them to win the match. After they had lost, Maverick got up and demanded a rematch, accusing Anne’s crew of cheating and was about to throw hands but was restrained by Hasuro and Yoyo. The rest of the group decided to take their loss with grace and they asked Anne what her quest about, who smirked and told them that they’ll know once they go back to their ships.

The *Hamilton Laurent’s Revenge* and *The William*’s crew started walking toward the dock and Anne was impressed at seeing the HLR’s ship and decided to use that ship for her quest. Mary argued with her, but Anne reminded her that she still has the Graecitan soldiers with her and until the quest is over, she is the boss here. The two crews entered the *Hamilton Laurent’s Revenge* and were surprised to see two grown pigs, a skinny one and a fat one, running around while being chased by Natalie and Madelina, who was carrying her wand, Holly and yelling words she made up on her mind. Pissed off that the ship’s condition, Mary demanded to know what the “pigs” are doing in the ship, where Natalie explained that those pigs are Chet and Chase whereas Madelina started crying as she had no idea how to turn them back to humans. Suddenly; Natalie remembered that Circe wasn’t the only witch at Clew Bay and there’s another one, the goddess of sorcerers herself: Hecate. Madelina recognized that name as her ancestor’s and she decided to seek her for advice. The girls decided to accompany Madelina, who nervously entered Hecate’s hut, who was furious at first but when she realized that the visitor was her great-granddaughter, she smiled and greeted her with an air of pleasantness. Realizing that Madelina was in distress, Hecate let her have a seat and told her to open up on whatever’s bothering her over a cup of tea. Madelina was hesistant but then she cracked up and told her great-grandmother about what happened to Chet and Chase, begging her to turn them back to humans. Hecate stood up and told Madelina that the spell she’s asking her to reverse is one of the primary spells a witch should know and questioned her on whether they taught her about it in the coven. When Madelina admitted she had only showed up at one lesson, Hecate frowned and told that this on her and she can’t help her for being a slacker, but if she is so desperate to turn her friends back, then she can get the spell out of the *Great Book of Sorcery*. When Madelina asked her what is that, Hecate revealed its a book she rewards to her best followers and that she can find it at Circe’s place, before disappearing from sight. The girls got out of the hut, disappointed and agreed to sneak into Circe’s inn, hoping they could find the book and steal it without anyone noticing but when they entered they were surprised to see that the saloon was empty. Suddenly, the door closed behind him, causing them to startle and Circe appeared before them with her girls standing next to her. The girls noticed a bruised-up Ernestine hiding behind the sorceress and this is when they realized Circe must have been warned about them knowing her true identity and that they had brought themselves into danger. Circe smirked and greeted the visitors, asking them what brings them into the inn again and knowing that they would battle Circe either way, the girls decided to be honest about them knowing who she is and confronted her for being guilty of “cannibalism”. A fight then broke out, with Circe using her index finger to charge spells at her visitors, but luckily the girls reacted fast and managed to miss her hexes. The girls started hiding behind objects to protect themselves from Circe, where Natalie, Mia, Madelina and the two pigs (Chet and Chase) ended up together behind the bar and they noticed a safe on one of the shelves. Mia decided to unlock the safe and inside they managed to find *The Great Book of Sorcery* and while Circe was distracted by Yoyo and Ophelia, they rushed to the pigsty where Madelina looked for a spell to reverse Circe’s curse and decided to test it on the other pigs before using it on Chet or Chase. The spell succeeded to turn the men back to their human form, who were all confused on why they weren’t wearing clothes but once Natalie reminded them of Circe, they got furious and decided to go in the inn and attack the sorceress for what she did to them. Once the men were gone, Madelina turned to Chet and Chase, turned them back to humans and gave Chet a hug, but backed away once she smelled his scent. Soon Yoyo and Ophelia reunited with them and they all went running back to the *Hamilton Laurent’s Revenge*.

**You are now experiencing the story in third-person view**

Meanwhile at *The William*, Vicci is sitting on a plank next to two other prisoners watching Niilo and Captain sparring. Captain stood still, tightening his muscles and ordered Niilo to give him his hardest punches to the torso. Niilo did, but none of his punches seem to make Captain flinch and eventually ended up hurting his knuckles instead, making the other prisoners laugh. He then tried to use his body to push Captain to the ground, but instead ended up deflecting and fell instead. After being done sparring, Captain gave Niilo a hand, told him he did a good  and reminded the others of the plan: Once the pirates come to take them, they’ll all gang up on them and take them down with their fists. Vicci rolled his eyes at the plan and told Captain that this isn’t necessary as the queen will send people to save them, but the others were impatient and didn’t want to risk waiting any longer. Suddenly, they heard someone approach their cell and once the lock was opened, Captain immediately went for a punch, but his fist ended up getting blocked. Shocked, Captain looked at the person he was attacking and was surprised to see that it was Zachary Riley and with him are two other men, Hasuro Haku and Maverick Rousseau. Captain asked them what they are doing there, where Maverick rolled his eyes and told him that they are here to free them, handing them over some new clothes they bought and sniggering at the sight of Niilo’s “charm”. After the prisoners were dressed up, they were taken to the *Hamilton Laurent’s Revenge* and the first thing they saw were Chase and Chet packed in a large wooden bucket, being washed by Madelina. When Madelina saw Zachary, she approached him and told him that Anne Bonny would like to see him at the captain cabin. Zachary went there and he saw that Mia and Mary were there too. Zachary asked Mia what Anne wants from them, where Mia told him that she’s going to tell them what the quest is about. Anne then finally showed up with a map on her hand and when Mary asked her for details on the quest, Anne laid the map which showed a cross on an island not far from the coasts of Spain and Portugal. This made Mary laugh and she told Anne that they have plenty of fortunes back in Graecita and that if she is looking for gold and jewels they can give her as much as she want as long as she lets them have her prisoners. Anne grinned and told her old friend that gold isn’t the prize she is seeking for and that this map leads to Medusa’ liar and she wants their help to chop her head off.

## Summary

### Victim

* **Isadora Haddonfield** (found cut into pieces and fed to pigs)

## Suspects

Ernestine KrauseAgnes LeekBrady NolanAnne BonnyAnnette Chevrolet
## Quasi-suspects

Madelina AlonzoHecateChet PeretzCaptain Zhāngjié
## Killer’s Profile

* The killer eats bacon.

* The killer drinks Connemara whiskey.

* The killer uses snake oil.

* The killer has a tattoo.

* The killer wears red lipstick.