Chronicle of the solution: The Riddle of the Seal
Poisoning Tier I
The poison has found the hand that poured it, and the Chancellery sets down here, for the archive, the whole course of the investigation.
The opening of the investigation
Someone slipped poison where it did not belong, and now the whole court eyes its goblets warily. The dose was measured with care — enough not to look like chance, too little to go unpunished. Suspicion has fallen on Ban Radu the Silent, Margica the Innkeeper and Brother Anselm — and until the proof is plain, none of these names leaves the room. Rumor walks the deed through every corner: the old chapel, the mill by the river and the wharf. Take up the quill, follow the thread of the clues, and set your seal upon the verdict.
The Chancellery had to weigh Ban Radu the Silent, Margica the Innkeeper and Brother Anselm. All of them had opportunity, and for that very reason opportunity was worth nothing.
The suspects
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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
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Margica the Innkeeper
At the Golden Boar inn, wine and secrets are spilled in equal measure. She never forgets a debt - or a word let slip.
1.61 m tall · dark eyes · chestnut hair · right-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 old chapel
Candles, incense, and a silence in which every footstep echoes like a confession.
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The mill by the river
The wheel turns day and night. Its noise drowns out any conversation - which is why some are held here.
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The wharf
Moored boats, wet ropes, and goods that prefer to arrive in the fog.
The pages of the file
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.
- Every scout reports the same about the culprit: the culprit was in the place where every footstep echoes like a confession.
- The tracks in the dust do not lie: Margica the Innkeeper was at the wharf.
- Even the jester says it in earnest: Ban Radu the Silent never set foot in the place where the wheel turns day and night.
See how the verdict was reached — open only if you have already tried the dossier
The road to the verdict
The Chancellery does not work with impressions. It works with a grid in which every cell has exactly one answer, and with the patience to find it.
A piece of information dearly bought showed its worth: “Every scout reports the same about the culprit: the culprit was in the place where every footstep echoes like a confession”. A fact fastened to the culprit, with no name attached: enough for all those the fact does not cover to fall.
The Chancellery began with what could be verified: “The tracks in the dust do not lie: Margica the Innkeeper was at the wharf”. From then on that cell could no longer be disputed, and the dispute moved one row down.
This too was added to the file: “Even the jester says it in earnest: Ban Radu the Silent never set foot in the place where the wheel turns day and night”. The possibility fell without appeal, and the circle tightened by one finger.
The verdict
The Chancellery pronounced its verdict without hesitation: the culprit is Ban Radu the Silent. At the hour of the deed, Ban Radu the Silent was at the old chapel. Nothing was assumed along the way; every step can be redone with a pencil on paper.
The remaining suspects
And here is what had become of the others, in that same hour: Margica the Innkeeper was at the wharf; Brother Anselm was at the mill by the river. It is these acquittals that made the verdict possible: without them, room for doubt would have remained.
Whoever reads this chronicle years from now will find in it less a deed than a method.
Play this dossier All mysteries
Nothing in this chronicle is invented: the text rises out of the dossier's logic, and the dossier passed through the solver before publication, so that its solution is provably unique. behind the scenes at the Chancellery.