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Chronicle of the solution: The Seal of the Court

Theft Tier II

The archivist has tied the file with red cord, the sign that the theft has found its author. The chronicle below shows how.

The opening of the investigation

A bold theft has shaken the calm of the court, and calm will not return until the truth comes out. The culprit worked cleanly, but not without witnesses — and the witnesses, at last, have begun to talk. The testimonies keep returning to the same names: Sir Bogdan de Fag, Iustin the Mariner, Manole the Jeweller and Margica the Innkeeper. The places named in the testimonies — the north wall, the hunting lodge, the tourney field and the queen's garden — each await their turn under scrutiny. Study the testimonies at your leisure, fit them into the grid, and pronounce your verdict without haste.

A court seal is a small thing, heavy and dear — exactly the sort of object that fits in a fist and changes a kingdom. When it went missing, the Chancellery did not look for an ordinary thief but for someone who knows what they are holding.

Which is why Manole the Jeweller is among the suspects, the only one of the four who could tell you its weight with his eyes shut. The others are Sir Bogdan de Fag; Iustin the Mariner — the man who can take anything out of the realm by water; and Margica the Innkeeper, at whose door everyone stops before leaving.

The places are unusually open for a theft: the north wall, the hunting lodge, the tourney field and the queen's garden. Three of the four are under open sky, which means more witnesses and, contrary to expectation, a harder dossier: witnesses contradict one another.

Tier II. You have three attempts. Spending them all is worth it only when the grid is complete — a hasty verdict costs fifteen per cent of your score.

The clerk entered Sir Bogdan de Fag, Iustin the Mariner, Manole the Jeweller and Margica the Innkeeper in the register — that, and not one name more, until the verdict.

The suspects

Locations

Objects

Moments

Everything that could be learned

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.

  1. Even the jester says it in earnest: Sir Bogdan de Fag never set foot in the hunting lodge.
  2. The chronicler notes drily: the herald's horn matches that hour: after matins, whatever the court may say.
  3. The hounds caught no scent at all: Manole the Jeweller never set foot in the hunting lodge.
  4. An honest-faced witness saw it plainly: the map of the realm matches that hour: at dawn.
  5. Two witnesses, upon their crest: the left-handed suspect never set foot in the hunting lodge.
  6. Every scout reports the same about the culprit: the culprit handled the small wine cask.
  7. In the Chancellery's ledger it stands in black and white: the north wall and the small wine cask go together.
  8. However it may seem, at suspects, the queen's garden and the hour "at dawn" take different roads.
  9. An honest-faced witness saw it plainly: Sir Bogdan de Fag handled the map of the realm.
  10. A maid whispered it at confession: Manole the Jeweller was there after matins.
  11. A maid whispered it at confession: the suspect with dark eyes was there at dusk.
See how the verdict was reached — warning: past this line, the mystery ends

The reasoning, step by step

The investigator guessed at nothing. Each finding went to its place in the grid, each testimony passed through the sieve of the Supreme Law, and elimination did the rest.

The gate register had kept a trace of its own: “Even the jester says it in earnest: Sir Bogdan de Fag never set foot in the hunting lodge”. The possibility fell without appeal, and the circle tightened by one finger.

A report from the watch brought clarity: “The chronicler notes drily: the herald's horn matches that hour: after matins, whatever the court may say”. 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: “The hounds caught no scent at all: Manole the Jeweller never set foot in the hunting lodge”. A well-proved “no” is worth, in an investigation, ten suspicions.

The archivist copied on, without comment, everything that could be proved: “An honest-faced witness saw it plainly: the map of the realm matches that hour: at dawn”; “Two witnesses, upon their crest: the left-handed suspect never set foot in the hunting lodge”; “Every scout reports the same about the culprit: the culprit handled the small wine cask”; “In the Chancellery's ledger it stands in black and white: the north wall and the small wine cask go together”; “However it may seem, at suspects, the queen's garden and the hour "at dawn" take different roads”; “An honest-faced witness saw it plainly: Sir Bogdan de Fag handled the map of the realm”. Laid end to end, they did what not one of them could have done alone.

This too was added to the file: “A maid whispered it at confession: Manole the Jeweller was there after matins”. The match was nailed down, and the rest of the row was left clean, like a page wiped with a sponge.

From one word to the next, the investigation arrived here: “A maid whispered it at confession: the suspect with dark eyes was there at dusk”. A pair was tied, and the knot dragged a whole handful of impossibilities after it.

The Chancellery's verdict

At the end of the grid one name alone remained: Iustin the Mariner. The arrangement in the grid is this: Iustin the Mariner was at the north wall, handled the small wine cask and was there at noon. All of this follows from the findings above, without a single unproved hypothesis.

What became of the others

And here is what had become of the others, in that same hour: Sir Bogdan de Fag was at the tourney field, handled the map of the realm and was there at dawn; Manole the Jeweller was at the queen's garden, handled the herald's horn and was there after matins; Margica the Innkeeper was at the hunting lodge, handled the ermine cloak and was there at dusk. They look like rows of padding and they are not: the whole of the rest rests on them.

The file sits on its shelf today, tied with red cord. What is worth keeping from it is not the culprit's name but the road: every step verifiable, none of them guessed.

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.