Chronicle of the solution: The Mystery of the Seal
Theft Tier I
The theft dossier is closed, and the Chancellery now permits itself to tell, at leisure, how it was unravelled.
How the file came to the Chancellery
In Realm of the Crown, only one thing is spoken of today: a daring theft, carried out almost before the court's eyes. The culprit worked cleanly, but not without witnesses — and the witnesses, at last, have begun to talk. On the Chancellery's list stand Damaschin the Healer, Brother Anselm and Ban Radu the Silent; one of these names covers a lie. Rumor walks the deed through every corner: the Golden Boar inn, the tourney field and the watchtower. Open the grid, weigh every clue, and pronounce your verdict: the Chancellery awaits only your signature.
Called to judgement were Damaschin the Healer, Brother Anselm and Ban Radu the Silent. Each had somewhere to begin a story; one alone had reason to change it.
The suspects
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Damaschin the Healer
He knows the cure for any illness and the dose at which the cure becomes something else. He swears he has never mistaken the dosage.
1.71 m tall · green eyes · grey 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
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Ban Radu the Silent
He has never uttered a needless word in his life. Sadly, nor a useful one for investigators.
1.81 m tall · grey eyes · grey hair · right-handed
Locations
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The Golden Boar inn
Wine watered down and rumours diluted with nothing. The rooms upstairs ask no questions.
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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 watchtower
The highest point of the fortress. From here you see everything - and from below, everyone sees who climbs up.
The pages of the file
This much was worked with, no more and no less. Minimality is not a figure of speech: each row was taken out in turn, at trial, and without it the solution ceased to be unique.
- The traces left at the scene show it plainly: the culprit was in the place where the rooms upstairs ask no questions.
- A maid whispered it at confession: Brother Anselm was at the watchtower.
- An honest-faced witness saw it plainly: Damaschin the Healer was at the tourney field.
See how the verdict was reached — warning, the culprit is named beyond this point
The unravelling of the thread
The road is always the same: findings first, because they do not lie; testimonies after, because one of them always does.
The examination of the place yielded this as well: “The traces left at the scene show it plainly: the culprit was in the place where the rooms upstairs ask no questions”. This line spoke of the guilty party without pointing a finger — and for that very reason it was useful.
From one word to the next, the investigation arrived here: “A maid whispered it at confession: Brother Anselm was at the watchtower”. Two names bound themselves for good, and the binding undid, at a stroke, every pairing that contradicted it.
The gate register had kept a trace of its own: “An honest-faced witness saw it plainly: Damaschin the Healer was at the tourney field”. The tick goes down without hesitation, and with it fall all the other cells on that row and that column.
The Chancellery's verdict
The name the grid could no longer force out of the circle is Ban Radu the Silent. At the hour of the deed, Ban Radu the Silent was at the Golden Boar inn. The verdict stands on its own, out of the findings above.
The remaining suspects
The others found their acquittal in the grid as well: Damaschin the Healer was at the tourney field; Brother Anselm was at the watchtower. Every one of these rows was necessary: take out a single one and the verdict can no longer be demonstrated.
Whoever reads this chronicle years from now will find in it less a deed than a method.
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.