It’s hard to believe that the 2025-2026 murder mystery season is nearly half over! While there are still spots available for some of the mysteries on the calendar, there are fewer and fewer events left to announce for this season. In fact, this week I am announcing the penultimate mystery for 2025-2026, in which we revisit the world of dark fairy tales. Please join Chief Detectives Michelle and Ryan as they lead the Ravenwood Detective Agency in Jack and the Deadly Beanstalk…

The kitchen staff at Ravenwood Castle are always working to improve the castle’s culinary offerings, so the new innkeeper’s suggestion to plant a garden on site was met with great excitement. After all, what’s better than fresh locally grown vegetables?

At first the garden seemed ordinary enough. Sure, the plants may have grown a bit faster than expected, and maybe they produced larger vegetables than anticipated, but that was all good, right? The excitement started to turn once the beans sprouted – specifically, once the giant beanstalk appeared in the middle of the garden. A single beanstalk taller than the gardener himself would have been weird enough, but it just kept growing, ultimately disappearing within the clouds above.

The castle staff became decidedly less excited, one might even say concerned, when the body appeared. It just showed up one morning, right at the base of the beanstalk, splayed amidst the squash and tomatoes. There was no obvious cause of death, just a dead body, arms reaching towards the beanstalk, hands clutching the stalk itself, as if the deceased were attempting to climb up – or perhaps down? – the stalk.

As the mystery grows, the questions multiply. What, if anything, lies atop the gigantic beanstalk? Is the victim’s death somehow linked to the oddly fertile garden? Is it still safe, or would it be in bad taste, to continue serving the vegetables from the garden?

The Ravenwood Detective Agency is calling all agents, veterans and novice alike, to answer these questions and more. Join us March 13^th & 14^th for Jack and the Deadly Beanstalk!

Tickets for Jack and the Deadly Beanstalk are $100. As with all of our mysteries, the event starts after dinner on Friday. Late arrivals will be accommodated as best as possible, but to enjoy the full experience please attempt to arrive early Friday evening.

If you haven’t been to one of our mystery weekends and are wondering what they are all about, check out our Anatomy of a Murder Mystery page for all of the details. And stay tuned here at Quoth the Raven to hear about the rest of the great mysteries we have planned for this season!

Jim Reed

Jim Reed is a lifelong gamer who started with the original red box Dungeons & Dragons. After spending 20 years in the corporate world, he decided it was high time that work be fun and struck out on his own. Jim now owns and operates Ravenwood Castle, and spends his days ensuring his guests have as much fun as he does.