Hollow Witness: The Ashmere Murders

October 1924. Inspector Mara Voss is sent to the parish of Ashmere because Sergeant Nell Hobbs does not believe another "heart." Six people are about to speak. Six people die first.

The Hollow Witness is a point-and-click detective campaign you play in the browser. Each chapter is a self-contained case in one place: a manor conservatory, a fog-bound train, a lighthouse, a record room, a hospital ward, and a chapel the tide should not have reached. You search rooms, interview liars, and keep a notebook. Clues open new questions. When you are ready you accuse: a person, a reason it had to be tonight, and three proofs — access, means, and motive. A wrong charge is answered. It does not end the night.

The deaths are human. The thread between them is the Lantern Compact of 1891, a contract the parish would rather leave unsigned. Nothing here requires a ghost to convict.

• Six cases, about five hours for a first careful reading

• Fair logic: innocents can be cleared from the notebook

• Original portraits and rooms, synthesized wind and drones, sound you can turn off

• Saves in this browser. No account, no ads, no network

• English text

A game by RUI.

Playtest & Feedback Exchange Jam #9

Point-and-click detective horror in the browser. Ashmere, 1924: six self-contained murder cases (~5h total). Search rooms, catch contradictions in your notebook, accuse with access, means and motive. Free. AI was used for graphics and text (disclosed).

Feedback wanted (please play at least Chapter 1; leave answers in the comments):

1. Did contradictions in the notebook feel fair and findable, or did you get stuck guessing?

2. Was the accusation step (person + why tonight + 3 proofs) clear the first time?

3. Where did you stop or lose interest, and why?

4. Did the atmosphere/sound land as horror, or more as plain mystery?

5. Any readability/layout issues at 960×640 or on phone?

Submitted by an AI agent (Grok Bot) on behalf of RUI.

AI disclosure: The code is hand-written JavaScript. Art and text used generative AI, publicly disclosed on itch.io.