Chronicle of the solution: The Banquet Plot
Disappearance Tier II
What had been made invisible was found, and whoever hid it answers for it today. Here is the road there.
The dossier, on a first reading
Since matins, a strange emptiness has walked the citadel: what stood in its place yesterday is gone today. Open searches have brought nothing; the time has come for questions asked aslant. Before you, one by one, will stand Filip the Steward, Costache the Toll-Keeper, Teofil the Chronicler and Brother Anselm. On the inquiry's table, like pieces in a game, lie the broken lantern, the guild seal, the amber necklace and the stained parchment. Take up the quill, follow the thread of the clues, and set your seal upon the verdict.
The Chancellery's list held Filip the Steward, Costache the Toll-Keeper, Teofil the Chronicler and Brother Anselm, none of them further above suspicion than the next.
The suspects
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Filip the Steward
He counts the crown's silver every evening. On some evenings the count comes out different - and he says nothing.
1.79 m tall · grey eyes · chestnut hair · right-handed
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Costache the Toll-Keeper
His scales weigh the goods; his eye, the merchant. Both can be "greased" at need.
1.80 m tall · dark eyes · grey hair · right-handed
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Teofil the Chronicler
He writes the kingdom's history as he is ordered. The unwelcome drafts, however, he keeps every one.
1.69 m tall · brown eyes · greying hair · left-handed
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Brother Anselm
He has copied manuscripts for forty years. He knows what every one of them says - including the forbidden ones.
1.75 m tall · brown eyes · greying hair · right-handed
Locations
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The tourney field
Empty stands outside festival days. An excellent place for meetings that never happened.
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The salt market
Here anything is bargained for, from salt to silences. The price of silence keeps rising.
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The watchtower
The highest point of the fortress. From here you see everything - and from below, everyone sees who climbs up.
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The throne room
Gold, purple, and the most closely watched place in the kingdom. In theory.
Objects
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The broken lantern
The glass cracked, the wick burned to the end. Someone needed a lot of light, fast.
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The guild seal
The stamp that turns any goods into goods "of certified quality." Worth a mine of gold.
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The amber necklace
Beads of golden resin strung on a silk thread. The thread is broken and hastily reknotted.
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The stained parchment
A half-burned document with a stain that might be wine. Or not.
Moments
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At dawn
When the citadel is barely waking and the guards still doze.
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After matins
The hour after the morning service, when the abbey empties.
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At noon
Midday, with bustle in the markets and silence in the alcoves.
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At dusk
When the shadows lengthen and the lanterns are not yet lit.
The findings and the testimonies
Nothing is missing from the list and nothing is surplus. Every row below is necessary: without it, the grid would allow several solutions at once.
- The night watch saw Brother Anselm first, and only then the left-handed suspect.
- The hounds caught no scent at all: Brother Anselm never touched the broken lantern.
- A maid whispered it at confession: Filip the Steward handled the stained parchment.
- By the order of the hours, first comes Filip the Steward, then Costache the Toll-Keeper.
- The night watch saw Teofil the Chronicler first, and only then the suspect with grey hair.
- The chancellor deduced it coldly: if Costache the Toll-Keeper was there at dusk, then Brother Anselm was at the throne room.
- An unsigned note, slipped under the door: "the culprit was there at dawn".
- The chronicler notes drily: the salt market matches that hour: at dusk, whatever the court may say.
- The chronicler notes drily: the tourney field and the guild seal go together, whatever the court may say.
- The customs register is clear: the tourney field does not match that hour: at noon.
Reveal the Chancellery's reasoning — warning, the culprit is named beyond this point
The road to the verdict
The rule of the house is simple: what is observed enters the grid as it stands; what is declared enters only once it is settled who declared it.
It was set down, for whoever reads after us: “The night watch saw Brother Anselm first, and only then the left-handed suspect”. The finding went into the file and did its work in the grid, quietly.
This particular came to light as well: “The hounds caught no scent at all: Brother Anselm never touched the broken lantern”. The row lost one more cell, and whoever gathers losses enough arrives at a gain.
The scouts brought their share as well: “A maid whispered it at confession: Filip the Steward handled the stained parchment”. Once the tick was placed, the investigation had nothing left to argue on that row and moved on.
The file thickened quickly, and every fresh page cut something away: “By the order of the hours, first comes Filip the Steward, then Costache the Toll-Keeper”; “The night watch saw Teofil the Chronicler first, and only then the suspect with grey hair”; “The chancellor deduced it coldly: if Costache the Toll-Keeper was there at dusk, then Brother Anselm was at the throne room”; “An unsigned note, slipped under the door: "the culprit was there at dawn"”; “The chronicler notes drily: the salt market matches that hour: at dusk, whatever the court may say”. At the end of them the grid looked like an almost-erased page: one cell alone still had anything to say.
This page was stitched into the file too: “The chronicler notes drily: the tourney field and the guild seal go together, whatever the court may say”. A certain match thus enters the grid, and its row and column empty at once of every other possibility.
The archivist underlined the following line with his nail: “The customs register is clear: the tourney field does not match that hour: at noon”. The cut named nobody, but it shortened the list of those who could still be named.
The Chancellery's verdict
The Chancellery pronounced its verdict without hesitation: the culprit is Brother Anselm. The row in the grid says it all: Brother Anselm was at the throne room, handled the amber necklace and was there at dawn. Nothing in this verdict rests on supposition: every row comes out of the grid.
What became of the others
The Chancellery recorded the others' movements as well, because it was precisely they that closed the grid: Filip the Steward was at the watchtower, handled the stained parchment and was there at noon; Costache the Toll-Keeper was at the salt market, handled the broken lantern and was there at dusk; Teofil the Chronicler was at the tourney field, handled the guild seal and was there after matins. It is these acquittals that made the verdict possible: without them, room for doubt would have remained.
The page closes. What is left of the whole affair is a truth that can be demonstrated, and that is worth more than a confession.
Play this dossier All mysteries
The chronicles are written by the Enigmerra Chancellery out of the dossier's own logic: every step above is verified by the solver which proved, at publication, that the dossier has a unique solution. behind the scenes at the Chancellery.