Chronicle of the solution: The Night Plot
Disappearance Tier I
The disappearance file has closed. The chronicle below retraces, step by step, how the circle was drawn tight.
The dossier, on a first reading
A disappearance troubles the citadel, and rumor grows faster than truth. Someone knows more than they say; the silences at court have suddenly grown very loud. The testimonies keep returning to the same names: Sword-Bearer Dragos, Luca the Squire and Teofil the Chronicler. Rumor walks the deed through every corner: the abbey library, the hunting lodge and the watchtower. Take up the quill, follow the thread of the clues, and set your seal upon the verdict.
The names entered in the file were Sword-Bearer Dragos, Luca the Squire and Teofil the Chronicler. The investigation regarded them all with the same coldness, as is proper.
The suspects
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Sword-Bearer Dragos
He bears the king's ceremonial sword. At the tourney he has never lost; at dice, always.
1.86 m tall · brown eyes · chestnut hair · right-handed
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Luca the Squire
He polishes the knight's armour and dreams of a sword of his own. For a coat of arms he would do almost anything.
1.72 m tall · green eyes · brown 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
Locations
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The abbey library
Thousands of leather-bound tomes. Some of the chains on the shelves were cut recently.
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The hunting lodge
The royal cabin in the heart of the forest. Far from the eyes of the court - which is exactly what suits some.
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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 findings and the testimonies
This much the investigation had at its disposal, not a line more. The set is minimal by construction — remove any of the rows below and the dossier becomes unsolvable again.
- In the Chancellery's ledger it stands in black and white: Sword-Bearer Dragos was at the abbey library.
- Even the jester says it in earnest: Luca the Squire never set foot in the hunting lodge.
- An unsigned note, slipped under the door: "the culprit was in the place from which you see everything".
Open the full reasoning — the culprit's name is spoken from here on
The road to the verdict
The start was not a culprit hunted by candlelight but whatever could be proved. The rest followed of itself, by cutting.
The examination of the place yielded this as well: “In the Chancellery's ledger it stands in black and white: Sword-Bearer Dragos was at the abbey library”. The tick goes down without hesitation, and with it fall all the other cells on that row and that column.
The next line was the one that changed the reckoning: “Even the jester says it in earnest: Luca the Squire never set foot in the hunting lodge”. A well-proved “no” is worth, in an investigation, ten suspicions.
A report from the watch brought clarity: “An unsigned note, slipped under the door: "the culprit was in the place from which you see everything"”. The Chancellery learned something about the culprit, but not who they were. The grid did the rest.
The close of the investigation
The Chancellery's verdict: the culprit is Luca the Squire. The grid shows plainly how matters stood: Luca the Squire was at the watchtower. All of this follows from the findings above, without a single unproved hypothesis.
The remaining suspects
And here is what had become of the others, in that same hour: Sword-Bearer Dragos was at the abbey library; Teofil the Chronicler was at the hunting lodge. It is these acquittals that made the verdict possible: without them, room for doubt would have remained.
The dossier is closed, but the method stays open to anyone with the patience to count cells.
Play this dossier All mysteries
Everything you read above rests on the dossier itself. The Chancellery's solver checked, at publication, that the given clues yield exactly one solution — no more, and not none. behind the scenes at the Chancellery.