Camp Smoothie: Disappearance Investigation Discussion

[Meridork]

I compiled all the evidence/my thoughts so you can double check me but I THINK IT'S BERYL YOU GUYS!! Here are my thoughts:

They seem very involved in a lot of this, and is straight up a bird. ALSO... WE HAVE NOT LEARNED THEIR PRONOUNS. SO THEY MAY BE MALE/MASON'S BROTHER. They have been noted to be very knowledgeable about the forest, having forraged for crafting supplies and having an overhead view of the forest, AND would also have access to paint to mess with the trail signs.

Motive for kidnapping Cirrus may be frustration with Glampers driving cryptids into the main camp--after all, arts and crafts pavilion was the first thing to get ransacked! We've been collecting Beryl's beads all week!

How does this relate to Seraphine's disappearance? Well, if Beryl was the one altering the signs, they probably didn't want Seraphine in the watch tower to be able to see them leading Cirrus away. So it would have been in their best interest for Seraphine to be preoccupied that night.



However i don't think the deal is sealed. I tried to un-biasedly collect the rest of the clues, and included my thoughts on potential other suspects:

MAJOR PLOTLINES:
-Cryptids have been encroaching on the main camp to a higher degree than normal, and i like the theory someone else posted about them being spooked out of the woods and into the main camp by the glampers.
-Mason's cryptid obsession, and brother's past of faking cryptid appearances. Mason says his brother hasn't done it in a while--but wait do we know if his brother works in the camp?
-Campers being inconsiderate/littering.
-Cirrus and Andrea having some kind of falling out around the time of the disappearance?


-PLAYER FOUND CLUES-

TEAM APPLE:
found orange fur under painted tree sign, and are pretty sure it belongs to Seraphine. it should be noted that the fur found at the cave was described as brown.
found that the trail signs were altered, and would have caused them to go the wrong direction.

BERRY:
Found an old sign calling the lake "Loch Tess".
Something big grabbed one of their members' ankles and tried to pull them under.
Saw the glampers heading out on canoes with their gear.

CHICKEN:
Learned mason's brother faked a BIG BIRD WITH RED EYES - which is identical to what we have been seeing from a lot of the pets!
Seraphine didn't believe in cryptids and that annoyed Mason.
Mason was very fed up with glampers and their improper camping.

CHOCOLATE:
Firewatch tower didn't seem disturbed but there was some old rope & an old spoon.
Found cirrus's bracelet by the lake, found permanent marker used to write on Cirrus's food bag, found that fairy lights are considered "dangerous"

CREAMSICLE
Bear bag interference - bags were too high for a bear to have messed with.
Some glampers have been irresponsible about not putting their food up in bear bags because it's not meat.
Clue about two figures in the woods--feels like this was explained by Cirrus walking strangely because she was stumbling though?

GREEN
Saw trail marker paint and trail maps in Seraphine's watchtower.
Saw 2 figures on the Glamping "Fintastic" boat in the lake.
Found rhinestones that were confirmed by Beryl to be from Cirrus's necklace, gifted to her by Andrea.

VANILLA
Learned Andrea is very upset--but wouldn't say why.
Learned Seraphine is newer to camp.
Learned Conall is surprised that Cirrus wanted to learn how to make a campfire because she is not the outdoorsy type.
Beryl is making a painting with stars that looks like eyes.


-NPC CLUES:-

CIRRUS'S KIDNAPPING:
Someone DID kidnap Cirrus--it was not an accident! She was snatched, blindfolded, and led away.
They did not speak to Cirrus or state their intention.
Once Cirrus was awake they saw loads of tracks near the cave, and saw a tuft of brown fur.
Felt like they were being watched and heard wings.
Glampers saw two figures--one walking strangely.
Conall said fur from the campsite smelled weak, as if whatever left that hadn't been around in a while. so whatever left the fur is probably not responsible.

SERAPHINE GETTING LOST:
Seraphine says they simply got turned around, and no one messed with them.
They were looking for a raspberry grove Mason told them about.
Compass unexpectedly broken, trail signs had been altered so they got lost.

CONALL SNIFFING AROUND:
Smelled a similar scent by the caves to the animals that have been coming into the main camp, but didn't get much from the fur. Thought it was similar to owls, but was a bit off.


SUSPECTS:
-a LOT seems to be pointing towards Mason and/or Mason's sibling, or the cryptid they were imitating; the red eyed bird pops up a lot in the pets we have been given. Also, Cirrus mentioned hearing wings while kidnapped and the bear bags were messed with by something that can get higher than a bear. Other cryptid tracks/fur around the cave were older and Conall only caught a scent of the "owls, but slightly off" which makes me think it MUST be somewhat bird related. However i am increasingly less suspicious of Mason because he doesn't seem like he would fake a cryptid sighting because he is so convinced they are real, and the cryptids themselves seem pretty peaceful from what we've seen of them in camp now. I suspect his bro/someone else from their hometown with the same idea may be behind it. I suspect Beryl for this!

-As pointed out earlier, Seraphine seems to be very experienced and it's strange that they would get lost so easily. While it does seem feasible that they were indeed sabotaged by someone with even MORE knowledge of the forest, we should probably take what they say with a grain of salt.

-Moose has been VERY adamant about trash and respecting wildlife, moreso than the other counselors. He's also specifically been very defensive of Tessie despite "not believing" in cryptids. Lunu as well. I feel out of the counselors they may have the strongest motive to try and teach campers a lesson. With the spoon and old rope being found by the firewatch tower I wonder if Moose may not be Mason's brother? The old rope being how he hoisted himself to fake flight, and the spoon just a hint it was someone involved with food?

-Also, incredibly suspicious of the Glampers. team Chocolate found Cirrus bracelet on the far side of the lake, and we know Glampers have canoes. Also, the mention of the 2 figures on the boat in the middle of the lake! And how they packed up and cleared out like ASAP. I'm not sure what their motive would be though. Maybe we need to ask Cirrus whose boat is the "Fintastic" so we can get more specifics on what's going on with that.

[SunstonePhoenix]

Hey, Cirrus, do you know who the Fintastic boat belongs to?

[Palimpsest]

Current thoughts:

I feel like the one thing missing from my understanding is a motive. The whole thing just feels a little strange. Why Cirrus? Why kidnap someone just to leave them by a cave for a while until they're found?

Seraphine is suspicious, but they also have no motive. This whole thing served very little purpose... unless, perhaps, they want people out of the forest?

I like the theory that Beryl may have a motive because their crafts were destroyed, although this is a pretty poor revenge plot, laying blame on some cryptids.

I think Mason has proven he has a very strong motive in wanting to prove cryptid existence.

I also think that everyone at the lake other than Mason seems aware of the cryptids and trying to respect their privacy...

And I'm not sure if the other counselors would have motive, except to teach kids / perhaps if they were Mason's brother (nice idea there).

The cryptids certainly have motive but it doesn't seem their style.

...

Do we know if Mason actually told Seraphine to get some raspberries?
Where I'm sitting, it's either a collaboration between those at the lake trying to protect cryptid privacy, or Mason trying to prove their existence.

[Meridork]

Yeah the motive is what escapes me for most of the characters! Like kidnapping seems... EXTREME!! No matter WHAT the motive!

To me i think Beryl's motive to kidnap Cirrus specifically would be it seems that Cirrus had a fight with Andrea recently, and Andrea and Beryl seem to be close. And if they ARE Mason's bro they'd just be reverting to an old tried-and-true method that worked. However we have seen creatures that DO look like the cryptid Mason's bro imitated so it's entirely possible that cryptid is actually *the one that did it.

I'm also jumping to like a LOT of conclusions, but a lot of the clues point to something bird-like. If it's not just actually the cryptids (which again they seem to be pretty nice) I feel like it needs to be a character that can actually fly! And i definitely agree with you that Mason has the STRONGEST motive! I've been very suspicious of him from the start but he seems so earnest! I'm definitely projecting my IRL friends who are big cryptid buffs onto him though, which is making me very biased towards him.

I'm also not totally against the theory that Conall did it just to stir up some drama and get a fun new scary story to tell. LOL!! They are a literal fire stoker after all! ;P

[VioletMarron88]

something i dont understand now that i think about it
- Cirrus's bear bag is so high up that there's very little chance it was a bear who messed with it
- Cirrus is a pony: wouldnt be as adept at climbing trees as a bear

so how did Cirrus get the bag up so high? (yes i considered that she could have asked another glamper to do it, but then she'd have to ask them to retrieve it/things from it for her whenever she wanted her food, which she seems too polite to do)


another thing im thinking about: did Cirrus and Andrea have a fight about something regarding 'how to camp', leading Cirrus to learn how to make a fire from Conall? it feels like really lucky timing that Cirrus knew how to make a fire before she ended up in a situation that required it!

ah also! question for Seraphine: your compass was broken in some way while you were lost in the forest, is it still broken? or has it gone back to normal now that you're in the camp's fire station

[Meridork]

so how did Cirrus get the bag up so high? (yes i considered that she could have asked another glamper to do it, but then she'd have to ask them to retrieve it/things from it for her whenever she wanted her food, which she seems too polite to do)

bear bags work by being hoisted up into the trees! so like, you pull it up high with a rope/mechanism! the whole idea is they're too high for bears to reach, so all would be feasibly out of reach of any non-flying camper by design.

BUT it's also entirely possible someone lowered it, messed with it, then raised it back up to hide evidence!

And you're totally right about it being suspicious that she's suddenly interested in camping. I'm still not entirely sure how the glampers fit into the picture, but it feels like they MUST be related somehow! it's so suspicious how they all packed up and left!! maybe they thought Cirrus was getting too big for her britches and were like, "oh yeah you're an outdoorsman? PROVE IT!!"

[Midnight Tails]

I agree that the motive is very hard to pin down!
I will say that another thing I forgot to mention earlier that makes Seraphine suspicious is she's asking for any and all info regarding the investigation...SURE it could be for the report she wants to give to the Forest Ranger Corps, but then, would it not be better to get information later once the culprit has been found?
Why is she asking for information when we're still in the vague stage, like it's mostly some rumours and some bits if evidence, noones even really sure of what's going on in terms of the staff and things...and yet Seraphine is writing a report?
And why is she writing the report anyways?
Would it not be better for someone else that isn't a newcomer to be writing the report? And she's not even the head ranger!
It's all very strange for her to be writing it specifically.
And the timing of asking for info.
Feels like it could be an easy cover story so she can keep up to date on what we know, in case she's gotta destroy evidence or run away or something now that her plans backfired.
This is a known thing people do after all, trying to keep tabs on investigations they're the cause of.
Just some more food for thought at least!

[VioletMarron88]

bear bags work by being hoisted up into the trees! so like, you pull it up high with a rope/mechanism! the whole idea is they're too high for bears to reach, so all would be feasibly out of reach of any non-flying camper by design.

BUT it's also entirely possible someone lowered it, messed with it, then raised it back up to hide evidence!

oh thank you! i had no idea they're hoisted like that... which ofc makes me think about the culprit maybe pulling too hard on the rope and raising it way higher than it was before! i recall something being pointed out about how it was unusually high up when we were looking around for clues?

[Nanorat]

Does anyone think the plushies set is suspicious? We got a pet of every cryptid in it but one.



Why is this guy the only one not included in pet version? Maybe because the aliens were the ones who kidnapped Cirrus?
Aliens are widely renown for mysterious kidnappings with no obvious motive behind them.
"Aliens did it"

[jesterdoll45]

There was an answer posted by Mason a few pages back (I forgot the original question). He said he fell asleep when he was supposed to be watching the fire tower for Seraphine because he was "up late researching." And also that Seraphine didn't see Cirrus' fire because she must have still been out looking for the raspberries. Wasn't Mason the one who originally told Seraphine about the raspberries? Isn't it convenient that he "fell asleep" while he was supposed to be covering the tower?

Edited to add: I have a slight feeling that Mason and Seraphine may be working together?