Chronicle of the solution: The Scheming of the Tourney
Espionage Tier III
Whoever carried the secrets out no longer walks free. Here, though, is how they were given away, step by step.
The dossier, on a first reading
In Realm of the Crown they say the walls have ears — and this time the saying has proven true. What has leaked so far is hard to weigh; what might yet leak, impossible. Suspicion has fallen on Safta the Herbwife, Tintar the Jester, Toma the Cellarer, Captain Vlaicu and Ilinca the Baker — and until the proof is plain, none of these names leaves the room. Rumor walks the deed through every corner: the old dungeon, the old chapel, the customs cellar, the abbey library and the wharf. A sharp eye is not enough here — it takes an archivist's patience: fit everything together, then pronounce your verdict.
The Chancellery had to weigh Safta the Herbwife, Tintar the Jester, Toma the Cellarer, Captain Vlaicu and Ilinca the Baker. All of them had opportunity, and for that very reason opportunity was worth nothing.
The suspects
-
Safta the Herbwife
She gathers herbs at hours when honest folk sleep. The herbs, she says, speak then.
1.58 m tall · green eyes · greying hair · right-handed
-
Tintar the Jester
The only man in the kingdom who may tell the king the truth - provided he makes it sound like a joke.
1.56 m tall · green eyes · red hair · right-handed
-
Toma the Cellarer
He holds the keys to every cellar in the castle. He claims the wine vanishes on its own, by "angelic evaporation."
1.73 m tall · brown eyes · red hair · left-handed
-
Captain Vlaicu
He has guarded the fortress gates for twenty years. Who enters and who leaves - he decides what the ledger records.
1.84 m tall · brown eyes · brown hair · right-handed
-
Ilinca the Baker
She weighs flour to the gram and people at a glance. No one stays in her debt twice.
1.62 m tall · brown eyes · chestnut hair · right-handed
Locations
-
The old dungeon
Cells abandoned since the new dungeon was built. "Abandoned" is one way of putting it.
-
The old chapel
Candles, incense, and a silence in which every footstep echoes like a confession.
-
The customs cellar
Sealed crates, thick ledgers, and air that smells of undeclared goods.
-
The abbey library
Thousands of leather-bound tomes. Some of the chains on the shelves were cut recently.
-
The wharf
Moored boats, wet ropes, and goods that prefer to arrive in the fog.
Objects
-
The broken lantern
The glass cracked, the wick burned to the end. Someone needed a lot of light, fast.
-
The signet ring
The crest has been filed away almost completely. Almost.
-
The abbess's bell
It calls the nuns to prayer. On the night in question, they all say, it rang once too many.
-
The royal seal
Whoever holds it can seal any decree. Which is why it should not be wandering the kingdom.
-
The hunting crossbow
Light, accurate, with a walnut stock. Exactly one bolt is missing from the quiver.
Motives
-
Ambition
Setea de a urca, chiar peste trupuri, spre o treaptă mai înaltă.
-
Revenge
O datorie de sânge pe care numai fapta o mai șterge.
-
Blackmail
Un secret ținut ca funia la gât, strâns exact cât trebuie.
-
A debt of honour
O făgăduială care cântărește mai greu decât viața.
-
Fear of exposure
Groaza de a fi dat în vileag, care împinge la orice.
The evidence gathered on file
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.
- An unsigned note, slipped under the door: "the culprit was driven by blackmail".
- The gate guard swears: the suspect with greying hair was driven by revenge.
- The gate guard swears: the suspect with chestnut hair was driven by fear of exposure.
- The Chancellery checked twice: the abbey library and the hunting crossbow do not go together.
- A maid whispered it at confession: Ilinca the Baker was at the old chapel.
- The Chancellery checked twice: Toma the Cellarer was not driven by ambition.
- The gate guard swears: the customs cellar and the signet ring go together.
- In the Chancellery's ledger it stands in black and white: the abbey library and revenge go together.
- An honest-faced witness saw it plainly: Toma the Cellarer handled the abbess's bell.
- The tracks in the dust do not lie: the shortest suspect handled the royal seal.
- The tracks in the dust do not lie: the left-handed suspect was in the place where goods arrive in the fog.
- Before the investigator, Captain Vlaicu firmly repeats: "I was driven by revenge".
Read the unravelling, step by step — open only if you have already tried the dossier
The road to the verdict
No suspicion weighed here. Only the grid weighed: every certain match sweeps a whole row and a whole column, and at the end one arrangement alone remains possible.
There followed a detail that narrowed the circle: “An unsigned note, slipped under the door: "the culprit was driven by blackmail"”. This line spoke of the guilty party without pointing a finger — and for that very reason it was useful.
A piece of information dearly bought showed its worth: “The gate guard swears: the suspect with greying hair was driven by revenge”. A certain match thus enters the grid, and its row and column empty at once of every other possibility.
This particular came to light as well: “The gate guard swears: the suspect with chestnut hair was driven by fear of exposure”. A pair was tied, and the knot dragged a whole handful of impossibilities after it.
The Chancellery received then, within hours, all that was still missing: “The Chancellery checked twice: the abbey library and the hunting crossbow do not go together”; “A maid whispered it at confession: Ilinca the Baker was at the old chapel”; “The Chancellery checked twice: Toma the Cellarer was not driven by ambition”; “The gate guard swears: the customs cellar and the signet ring go together”; “In the Chancellery's ledger it stands in black and white: the abbey library and revenge go together”; “An honest-faced witness saw it plainly: Toma the Cellarer handled the abbess's bell”; “The tracks in the dust do not lie: the shortest suspect handled the royal seal”. Not one of them named a culprit. Together, though, they left room for one alone.
The archivist underlined the following line with his nail: “The tracks in the dust do not lie: the left-handed suspect was in the place where goods arrive in the fog”. The match was nailed down, and the rest of the row was left clean, like a page wiped with a sponge.
A note in the margin of the page read: “Before the investigator, Captain Vlaicu firmly repeats: "I was driven by revenge"”. A suspect's word carries weight only after it is known whether the mouth that spoke it is clean.
The word that would not fit
The lie came to light by its plain failure to fit. Captain Vlaicu swore before the Chancellery that I was driven by revenge, yet everything that could be proved shows the opposite: Captain Vlaicu was not driven by revenge. Under the Supreme Law that failure to fit is the culprit's own signature.
The culprit's name
At the end of the grid one name alone remained: Captain Vlaicu. The grid shows plainly how matters stood: Captain Vlaicu was at the customs cellar, handled the signet ring and was driven by blackmail. Plain elimination was not enough here: every suspect had to be tried as the culprit until all hypotheses but one shattered. Hence the dossier stands at tier III.
What became of the others
And here is what had become of the others, in that same hour: Safta the Herbwife was at the abbey library, handled the broken lantern and was driven by revenge; Tintar the Jester was at the old dungeon, handled the royal seal and was driven by ambition; Toma the Cellarer was at the wharf, handled the abbess's bell and was driven by a debt of honour; Ilinca the Baker was at the old chapel, handled the hunting crossbow and was driven by fear of exposure. Not one of the rows above is spare — remove it and the grid opens again.
Here the chronicle stops. If you followed it to the end, you did exactly what an investigator does: you believed the grid, not your impressions.
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.