Check the barbershop and see if anything is missing or out of place. Especially focus on missing barbicide but I'll take whatever.

So it IS poison, huh? Well, poison-adjacent... Close enough.

Let's check the Barber. Any of that disinfectant stuff missing? Pretty sure that's blue... How's it compare to Bud's lung juice?

You check these. A razor and some nitrous oxide are missing, but no disinfectant.

It's blue, but it's not the same blue as Bud blue.

This post was last modified: 6 hours ago by Kroos the Keen Glint.

Look at the barrels in the general store. What sort of things are stored in them? Aside from pickles.

Look at the barrels in the general store. What sort of things are stored in them? Aside from pickles.

You got barrels of pickled tomatoes, pickled onions, and some large quantities of various grains.

Are all the tomato barrels full and undisturbed? How about onions?

I don't think grains would make a "glopping noise" but I guess I can check those too.

Are all the tomato barrels full and undisturbed? How about onions?

I don't think grains would make a "glopping noise" but I guess I can check those too.

Well, all the ones remaining in the store are.

Several of them are disturbed by virtue of falling into the hole and breaking on the ground of the Storeroom.

What happens if we mix nitrous oxide from the Barbershop with water? What color is it?

Let's do the same test with, um... water that already has copper in it.

If we dunk a stick into either of those, is it corrosive?

This post was last modified: 5 hours ago by Superchao.

What happens if we mix nitrous oxide from the Barbershop with water? What color is it?

Let's do the same test with, um... water that already has copper in it.

If we dunk a stick into either of those, is it corrosive?

You try to mix nitrous oxide with water.

It turns out it just kinda dissolves into water and creates no reaction. The water is clear. You drop a stick in, and it reacts like a stick in slightly bubbly water.

Show off the ID cards I stole from the Crimson Eye dead bodies.

Show off the ID cards I stole from the Crimson Eye dead bodies.

You look at the id cards.

You shake your heads sadly over the unfortunate fates of Muir Derer, Homi Sidal, Crim Enel, and Eve L. Keller.

They deserved better.

Can we replicate the pickle test by having Kroos stand where she's been, um... s-standing in the basement, I guess...

Then, dump a barrel of pickles from the General Store down the stairs to the storeroom, or wherever.

When Kroos listens to it, does it sound like what she heard?

If there's anywhere to replicate that, let me know... I mean, we might have to do it in Prickly Pear, b-because of the... hole in the floor in Desert Sage. But just keep me updated...

Can we replicate the pickle test by having Kroos stand where she's been, um... s-standing in the basement, I guess...

Then, dump a barrel of pickles from the General Store down the stairs to the storeroom, or wherever.

When Kroos listens to it, does it sound like what she heard?

If there's anywhere to replicate that, let me know... I mean, we might have to do it in Prickly Pear, b-because of the... hole in the floor in Desert Sage. But just keep me updated...

You have Kroos listen to this. Neat.

This post was last modified: 5 hours ago by McJango.

There seems to be a lot of information to review here. McJango makes some notes.

Bud

Death Location / Location Details
- Found at the end of the Canal, via floating down from the start

Cause of Death / Body Status
- The Victim was stuffed inside a barrel
-- The barrel is solidly sealed

- Minus the dye Bud's body looks very clean

- His lungs contain a small amount of water
-- This water does not small like the tunnel water.
--This water is a really light blue (however his body is more blue than the water)

- His body is dyed red
-- The dye tastes earthy
-- When testing some red rocks also takes earthy when in powder form
--- To get the red rocks to dye you would need some sort of binding agent
-- The dye in not soluble in water
-- The dye is not: Beetroot

- Under the dye, Buds skin has a distinctly blue cast to it.
-- This blue is a blue-green azure
-- When smashing up Copper and dumping it into water you can get the same shade of blue. However the taste isn't earthy.
-- This blue is not a match with: Antifreeze, coolant, disinfectant from the barber shop

- Buds eyes are bloodshot and irritated as if something was in them.

- He has multiple blunt force injuries (Not are severe) from Atua


Murder Weapon
- The inside of the barrel is covered in the red dye
-- The barrel smells like Brine (and pickles are all over the storeroom)

- There is also a Mortar and pestle' inside also covered in the same red dye
-- The mortar and pestle appears to be the one missing from the General store , although it might also be missing from the explosion.


Current Theory
-

Other Notes:
- The barrel floated down the river after the cart left.

Night Sightings:
- Zalsarona noticed Bud walk west when exiting the general store at the start of the night
- Zalsarona noticed Bud is seen working on a little house on the northeast intersection by the graveyard

- Nico noticed Bud and Atua fight (north of the saloon) After the fight Bud went west

- Hollywood bowl noticed Bud working on his bees at the start of the night

...Sorry I'm late on this one. Kinda hard to parse this whole thing with all these hats, you know? Besides, not like I saw anything useful - unless you count the pickles I guess. Still, if it's for Bud, guess I should probably testify anyway, just don't expect any of the usual fancy trappings. I was out digging in the desert all night, I don't have the energy for any of that stuff...

I'll tell you, if someone came to me back home and offered me a job digging some stupid hole... not even I'd take that. Even a low-grade Fixer like myself has some kind of standards... But it was for a good cause, even if the big gold guy's still here.



Anyway, about this hat business... I reached out to a couple people to try and figure out a few identities early on. Thought it'd be helpful to know who's who, at least with my allies. Didn't do much good in the end - but that's why I was in the Vault. Managed to identify Russian Hat almost immediately as McJango, for better or worse, based on a couple secret parameters I gave him. Can't say the same for Pork Pie, who wasn't happy with me for some reason. Can't please 'em all, I guess...

I ID'd Fedora as North Star a little while later, and we headed downstairs with the cat. I had a contract with the guy, and he seemed like he was ready to carry it out. Not like it needed much effort on his part, but I needed a watchful eye for an experiment. Down in the labs , I just saw Bowler Hat leaving the Testing Range. Waited around for a bit, and Cowboy Hat and Baseball Cap came downstairs after that. Before I could say anything though, Cowboy Hat just drew a sword and starting swinging at me...



Yeesh, I dunno what their deal was, but I wasn't exactly looking for a fight down here... Thankfully they were pretty uncoordinated, and I managed to fight them off - but I guess I can't say it wasn't a pretty cool duel. After they ran off, Baseball Cap identified herself as Evangeline, and we headed out to get this experiment underway. McJango went upstairs though, so I guess the cat didn't have much interest in whatever psuedoscientific stuff we were gonna pull off.

Pork Pie came by from the Orange basement as we left, and when we walked through the Blue basement, we saw Bonnet slitherin' around near the Crypt. We made our way through Purple to the Processing Room, and I strapped myself into the machine. The way I see it... Occultic can take out Liturgic, right? So I figured that if I managed to inject myself with some of the black stuff, then at the very least, I might be able to break Atua's spell. 'Course, I didn't wanna do anything crazy post-injection, which is why I needed North Star and Evangeline - to put me in the dirt if that happened.



...But it didn't do anything, just hurt like a son of a bitch. Don't know what I expected.



Well, I unstrapped myself and we split up. Dunno where North Star went, but Evangeline and I headed down to the Yellow Basement. Only got a cursory look around there last night, figured I might be able to learn a thing or two if I really looked. I mostly just spend time wandering around down here lookin' at stuff, but I saw Sombrero zonked out on the floor chugging down some of that server coolant from a pipe - and I saw Flat Cap in the Cold Storage rummaging through some chemicals. Figured it was none of my business though, and all the bodies in there were already looted anyway, so I didn't really hang out long...

...Didn't end up learning much down here, despite my best efforts. Only that Deathborn seemed to be obsessed with trains, and that all the passwords for the Red basement got erased. Ah well.



After that point, the rest of my night was pretty useless as far as actually investigating anything related to Bud's killer was gonna go - besides the pickles all over the Storeroom floor when I got back to the Purple basement. I know for a fact that Bud was still alive when I went outside though, because I saw Beanie working over to the northeast. Sun Hat was out here too, haulin' around a bunch of junk. Probably for his gate, if I had to guess.

All I did afterwards is head back to my dorm, saddle up, and ride over to the wagon to meet up with Bowler Hat again, who identified herself as Zalsarona. After Lynne... and now Bud... Haah, I felt like she could use a helping hand with this whole thing. I don't normally work for free, but c'mon... this was an exception.



...So we hitched up the wagon and rode all the way out to the Outskirts, by the Radio Tower. As far away as we could haul that accursed hoard. I can't say for certain whether it'll do anything to Atua in the long run... but anything's worth trying.

We dug a deep hole alright, backbreaking work for sure - at least it was nighttime I guess. Can't imagine what that'd be like during the daytime... no wonder all we do is run around looking at stuff and throwing bodies around while the sun's beating down on us. Once all the stuff was in the ground, we lit it up with flamethrowers until all that remained of Atua's legacy was ash and dust. Then... we buried it, so that no one'd ever find it again.



We didn't really have time to go back, so Zalsarona set up camp while I went to check out the Radio Tower again. Truth be told, I was curious as to whether we could reach out to anyone - even the Crimson Eye. If we could get everyone out here and call in some kind of nuclear strike on the town... yeah, that'd crush that Atua guy like a bug, right?

Unfortunately, looks like someone sabotaged the equipment out here before this "game" started. I'm no electrical engineer, so I wasn't about to sit around and figure it out either.So... we settled in for the night. Made some canned soup. It wasn't the dorms, but... this is this, and that's that. I can't say it was completely uncomfortable either. If I end up Fatigued, I'd blame it more on the labor than the sleeping conditions, you know?



...Not fatigued enough to give up on Bud's killer though. To think, they had to fall back on the likes of a poison... Couldn't even give him the dignity of a fair fight to the death. Even back in the City, they'd look at people like you like the lowest of the low. Don't get me wrong, I don't give a crap about honor or anything like that - but if you can't even cut a man down with your own hands, what use are you in the fight against Atua?

Whoever you are, Bud was ten times the man you were - and I'm not just talking about his size, either.

Roll a barrel loaded with idk rice or something to simulate Bud's body and sprint back to where Turb is standing, can I make it there in time?

Roll a barrel loaded with idk rice or something to simulate Bud's body and sprint back to where Turb is standing, can I make it there in time?

You roll this barrel into the canal and run back to where Jessica is by the water tower.

It looks like it would be possible to beat the barrel there, yes.

For full clarity on that check, would it look like you just arrived, or could you get in the middle of doing some work before the barrel shows up within vision?

Examine the grounds around the general store for anything out of place.

I-I'll accompany Kroos to check the entire perimeter of the Purple Building... we're coworkers, after all...

For full clarity on that check, would it look like you just arrived, or could you get in the middle of doing some work before the barrel shows up within vision?

You would pretty much just arrive. You couldn't really start doing work, the barrel has arrived at that point.

Examine the grounds around the general store for anything out of place.

I-I'll accompany Kroos to check the entire perimeter of the Purple Building... we're coworkers, after all...

You don't find anything out of place here.

Can I do a thorough search of the mayor's office? Move every piece of furniture, check every drawer, look under the rug, knock on every wall and ceiling, leaf through every book and calendar and harshly scrutinize the picture of the month.