A fantasy role-playing game turns deadly when a player named Miles Chaffey is found slain.
Tropes:
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Dr. Reginald Meade, holy hell. He made a 20% investment in Brody Max's real estate projects which were going to be built over a potential heritage site, and is bribed by Brody into discrediting said site when it threatened to cause his housing projects to be stopped and him to lose his investments, destroying the reputation of the university's archaeology department and the student who proposed the dig, and Meade never gave a damn about any of it. Then when said student finds proof that his findings were real, Meade kills him out of desperation after failing to persuade him to sell it for money when it threatened to make him lose his promotion and reputation. Even after he shows his true colors, Meade doesn't hesitate to badmouth Miles for his interests and still considers him delusional.
- Dirty Coward: Gabby was actually the first one to find Miles dead. After coming back from trying to stop the LARPers’ bush party (as they had drugs and alcohol which would cause distrust between them and the field owners), she found her tent ransacked and the dagger she was going to bury at New Valhalla as a way of saying goodbye before stepping down as game master (which goes against her rules against having real weapons, as Charlie points out) stolen. She found it next to Miles’s body with it being used to carve a death rune into his neck. Instead of helping him, she chose to drive off with the dagger and hide it in her garden out of fear of being accused of Miles’s murder. Charlie reprimands Gabby for tampering with evidence and abandoning Miles when it’s her job as game master to be looking out for everyone.
- Everyone Has Standards: Brody may be a sleazy realtor who scams buyers with poorly constructed houses, tries to build said houses over a potential World Heritage site, and bribes Dr. Meade to discredit the artifacts found there, but even he is horrified at Meade resorting to murdering Miles to protect his own personal interests. Then again, it may have more to do with dealing with a murder charge on top of all their previous crimes than anything else.
- Frame-Up: A dagger belonging to Gabby Mitchell was stolen from her LARP tent and used to frame her by being used to carve a rune meaning "death" into Miles's neck postmortem. Gabby was going to bury it out of respect for New Valhalla and that she was stepping down as game master. Although her innocence is proven, Gabby is still charged with tampering with evidence at the crime scene since she retrieved the dagger and hid it in her garden when it had Miles's DNA on it.
- I Did What I Had to Do: Dr. Meade's justification for killing Miles, as everything he had worked for would have been ruined if he was forced to admit that he discredited the first New Valhalla dig.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Miles's cause of death was from being impaled through the back by a sword, the exact same sword he spent years trying to find to restore his reputation.
- Murder Is the Best Solution: Dr. Meade kills Miles after failing to persuade him into selling the Lodbrok, as his findings threatened Meade's 20% investment in Brody's real estate plans, his reputation and his recent promotion after falsely discrediting the student's previous findings.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Charlie gives a short but scathing one to Dr. Meade when the latter claims he "lost his way" through everything that happened:Charlie: You may have lost your way, but Miles lost his life.
- The Reveal: Turns out Miles's findings actually were real, and that Dr. Meade was bribed by Brody to discredit them after they threatened to cease Brody's housing projects and cause Meade to lose his investment in them.
- Sanity Slippage: Miles became more erratic from his desperation to save New Valhalla, even attacking Fred after the latter told him he put a deposit down on one of Brody's houses, telling him that he “sided with the enemy.”
- Shady Real Estate Agent: Brody Max, a real estate agent who's trying to construct houses over the site of New Valhalla, with many of his existing projects constantly being commented on for their shoddy craftsmanship. He also bribed Dr. Meade to discredit the dig site and Miles's findings and became an unwilling accomplice in the former student's murder. Fortunately, Brody was cheap enough to encase the Lodbrok (Miles's murder weapon) in plaster instead of concrete like Meade told him to, which allowed Rex to find it in his showroom. As Charlie puts it: "Real estate agents are always cutting corners".
- The Starscream: Gabby Mitchell (the LARP game master) accused Miles of being this when performing actions like letting his friend Fred Beasly into the group despite his criminal record, drug problem, and anger issues, though some of the other members did consider Miles to be a better game master than her. The feud between them escalated when the LARPers were told they would have to move somewhere else and decided they would start a new game at the new location with Miles as the game master.
- Taking You with Me: How Dr. Meade forced Brody to help him cover up all his crimes, that Meade would tell everyone that Brody bribed him to discredit the first dig site if the truth ever got out.
- Tragic Dropout: Miles dropped out of university when his reputation in the archaeological community was tarnished after his findings at New Valhalla were falsely declared forgeries, being told he either had to drop out or face disciplinary action. He then spent the next three years secretly continuing to dig on his own until he managed to find the Lodbrok, which would have allowed him to reclaim his reputation. Dr. Meade and Brody however, had other ideas.
- Viking Funeral: The other LARPers (minus Gabby, as she is still arrested for tampering with evidence) hold one for Miles at the end of the episode, setting his LARP gear ablaze alongside a land-based Viking ship at New Valhalla.
- You Monster!: Dr. Helen Bubois calls Dr. Meade this for getting Miles wrongfully kicked out of university and then killing him for nothing but a 20% investment in Brody's shoddy real estate.Dr. Dubois: (after the Lodbrok is revealed to her) The Lodbrok! Miles was right! The whole time! And you made me believe he was crazy!Dr. Meade: He was crazy! Dressing up like a lunatic! Wearing pointed devil ears!Dr. Dubois: I blamed myself for what happened to him for years! Miles was a brilliant young man, and you exiled him from the community! For what? Real estate!? The real devil is you!
