The Polyjuice Inquiry

What It Is

Each Inquiry seats up to 16 persons (default 9 minimum, padded with NPC students so a game can run with as few as 3 live players). When it convenes, every seat is privately assigned one of three standings by confidential owl:

• Genuine student — no night powers, only a vote and your judgment. Win by expelling every impostor.
• Impostor — you drank the Polyjuice Potion. By default there is one impostor per 4 seats. Impostors know one another. Win by reaching parity with the genuine students.
• Sneakoscope Holder — exactly one per Inquiry. Each night you point a temperamental, never-wrong instrument at one person and learn at dawn whether they are an impostor.

Being Replaced is, in the Committee's view, a personal failing but not — strictly — illegal until detected.

Enrolling

Find the Inquiry in the village under "Polyjuice Inquiry"; when signups are open the nav reads "Polyjuice Inquiry — Signups Open!". A new Inquiry opens automatically when none is running (admin-configurable).

• Deposit: enrollment costs a 100 gold buy-in (default), which goes into the pot. You can withdraw for a full refund any time before signups close.
• Signup window: open for 2 game days (default). If fewer than 3 live players enroll, the Committee extends enrollment once; fail to reach quorum twice and the Inquiry is dissolved and every deposit is reluctantly returned by owl-post.
• The Committee strongly encourages enrollment from students who are not confident they are themselves.

How a Game Runs

The Inquiry alternates two phases, each lasting one game day by default. Phase transitions are driven automatically — you do not need to be online for them to resolve; the clock in the chamber shows the real-world time left in the current phase.

• Night. The dormitories are sealed. The impostors collectively settle on one student to Replace (their picks are tallied; the most-targeted student is removed, ties broken deterministically). The Sneakoscope Holder points the instrument at one person.
• Dawn. The Committee announces who was Replaced — and reveals some symptom of substitution, e.g. "4% taller and unable to recall their own middle name," or "wearing their uniform correctly, arousing immediate suspicion." The Sneakoscope Holder receives a private owl with the night's result.
• Day. The floor opens for testimony. Each living person votes (publicly, refilable until nightfall) to expel one suspect. At day's end the most-accused person is remanded for mandatory potion-status testing; their true role is announced. A tie expels no one (officially, owing to staples).

Impostors who never file a night pick get an engine-chosen target so the game never stalls; the same applies to NPC seats. NPCs also vote at daybreak and post flavor chatter, so the tally is live all day.

Taking Action

Enter the Inquiry Chamber from the lobby. You will see the Register of Persons (who is present, Replaced, or expelled), your own standing, and — if you are alive and it is your phase — a form to act:

• Vote (day, everyone): pick a suspect and file your testimony. Refile freely until nightfall.
• Mark for Replacement (night, impostors): choose a student to Replace. You cannot target a fellow impostor ("professional courtesy forbids it").
• Inspect (night, Sneakoscope Holder): aim the instrument at one student; the result arrives privately at dawn.

Impostors also get a private Whispers Among Colleagues chat that only living impostors can read or post to — the walls of the chamber being thin in one very specific direction. Everyone else discusses on the open Floor of the Inquiry. The Replaced and the expelled may observe but not speak: the Committee's Quietus Charm prevents testimony from the replaced, the expelled, and the merely nosy.

Winning, Losing & Rewards

Students win when every impostor has been expelled. Impostors win the moment they equal or outnumber the remaining students. At game end the full cast is revealed and payouts go out:

• Gold pot: the winning humans split the deposit pot evenly (a small remainder is "deducted for stapling"). The Replaced and expelled still win or lose with their team — administratively, posthumously.
• House points: 10 to each winner, 2 for participation to each loser (defaults).
• Gems & commendations: a winning impostor who survived the entire Inquiry without once testing positive earns 5 gems and the "Probably Human" commendation. A winning Sneakoscope Holder whose inspections caught two or more impostors earns 3 gems and the "Sneakoscope Holder" commendation. Both grant a claimable Ministry title (which the Ministry will misspell on the certificate).
• Lifetime stats — Inquiries attended, wins as student, wins as impostor, and your commendations — appear on your character bio.

Limits & Fine Print

• One Inquiry at a time across the whole game; you enroll in whichever is currently accepting persons.
• No self-incrimination: you cannot target yourself ("Form 12, out of stock since 1972").
• Phase-gated: voting is day-only, replacing and inspecting are night-only, and the Inquiry will not accept testimony from people it cannot see.
• Refiling allowed: any action can be changed until its phase ends; only the choice on file when the clock runs out is counted.
• Deleting your character mid-game empties your seat (Regulation 19, Persons, Sudden Absence Of); the Committee will not speculate, in writing.
• All complaints should be addressed to the Committee — in writing, in triplicate, and in vain. The full rules live behind "Read the Rules (Form 7-A)" in the lobby.