The Scheming of the Night
A seal that never lies has been placed, this once, in the service of a lie. Until the hand that pressed the seal is found, every written order stands in doubt. The testimonies keep returning to the same names: Damaschin the Healer, Brother Anselm and Duchess Amara de Corvin. Rumor walks the deed through every corner: the Golden Boar inn, the queen's garden and the north wall. Take up the quill, follow the thread of the clues, and set your seal upon the verdict.
From the Chancellery archive
A forged decree is a cold crime. It needs neither knife nor poison — only a hand that can imitate a letter, and a night long enough. The Chancellery named this dossier “The Scheming of the Night” precisely because the deed left no traces, only a sheet of parchment asserting something that was never decided.
Suspicion falls on three people of very different skills. Brother Anselm has copied manuscripts for forty years and knows what is written in all of them, the forbidden ones included; a quill like his can make a forgery better than the original. Damaschin the Healer knows the remedy for every illness, and the dose at which a remedy becomes something else. Duchess Amara de Corvin has been widowed three times and has inherited on each occasion.
All three places are places for passing unseen: the Golden Boar inn, whose upstairs rooms ask no questions; the queen's garden, where at night the hedge has ears; and that stretch of the north wall the watch skirts when the wind is up — a detail which, the dossier notes drily, everybody knows.
Tier I. You will not need chained hypotheses here, only patience with the cutting.
Suspects
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
left-handed
green eyes
grey hair
He has copied manuscripts for forty years. He knows what every one of them says - including the forbidden ones.
1.75 m
right-handed
brown eyes
greying hair
Widowed three times, heir on each occasion. Her smile has buried more nobles than the plague.
1.68 m
right-handed
dark eyes
black hair
Locations
the Golden Boar inn
Wine watered down and rumours diluted with nothing. The rooms upstairs ask no questions.
the queen's garden
Roses trimmed to a line and paths you may walk only by invitation. At night, the hedge has ears.
the north wall
The stretch of wall the patrol skirts when the wind blows. Everyone knows that.
Open the Grid (below) to solve the case, with the testimonies at hand.
Touch a cell: blank → ✗ (excluded) → ✓ (certain) → blank. Each pair of categories meets exactly once.
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Verdict
The culprit always lies; everyone else tells the truth.
- The traces left at the scene show it plainly: the culprit was in the place where the hedge has ears.
- The chronicler notes drily: the tallest suspect was at the north wall, whatever the court may say.
- The chronicler notes drily: Damaschin the Healer was at the Golden Boar inn, whatever the court may say.