Chronicle of the solution: The Shadow of the Banquet
Poisoning Tier IV
The cup was drained and the culprit named, and this chronicle preserves the reasoning that stood against them.
What the file said when it was opened
An overturned goblet, a face gone pale, whispers dying down — thus began, in Realm of the Crown, the case before you. The dose was measured with care — enough not to look like chance, too little to go unpunished. The testimonies keep returning to the same names: Duchess Amara de Corvin, Damaschin the Healer, Elisei the Stargazer, Chamberlain Iorgu and Mihu the Archer. The places named in the testimonies — the old chapel, the cathedral crypt, the north wall, the great stable and the abbey library — each await their turn under scrutiny. A sharp eye is not enough here — it takes an archivist's patience: fit everything together, then pronounce your verdict.
The names entered in the file were Duchess Amara de Corvin, Damaschin the Healer, Elisei the Stargazer, Chamberlain Iorgu and Mihu the Archer. The investigation regarded them all with the same coldness, as is proper.
The suspects
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Duchess Amara de Corvin
Widowed three times, heir on each occasion. Her smile has buried more nobles than the plague.
1.68 m tall · dark eyes · black hair · right-handed
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Damaschin the Healer
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 tall · green eyes · grey hair · left-handed
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Elisei the Stargazer
He reads the future in the stars and the past in men's debts. The second method fails less often.
1.67 m tall · blue eyes · greying hair · right-handed
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Chamberlain Iorgu
He arranges the king's audiences and, for a small courtesy, the order in which petitions are read.
1.77 m tall · grey eyes · brown hair · right-handed
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Mihu the Archer
He hits a coin tossed on the wind from a hundred paces. At questions, though, he always misses.
1.76 m tall · brown eyes · brown hair · left-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 cathedral crypt
The old kings sleep beneath crested slabs. Now and then, someone disturbs their rest.
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The north wall
The stretch of wall the patrol skirts when the wind blows. Everyone knows that.
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The great stable
It smells of hay and hurried departures. Horses give no testimony.
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The abbey library
Thousands of leather-bound tomes. Some of the chains on the shelves were cut recently.
Objects
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The hunting crossbow
Light, accurate, with a walnut stock. Exactly one bolt is missing from the quiver.
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The ledger of accounts
Neat columns of figures, with one page torn out exactly at mid-month.
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The small wine cask
Arin wine, the good year. The bung was pulled and put back by an unskilled hand.
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The herald's horn
It sounds the muster, the alarm, or the retreat. Whoever holds it can start a whole panic with a single breath.
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The locked chest
Three padlocks, two rows of straps. Fresh scratches around the hinges, not the locks.
Motives
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Revenge
O datorie de sânge pe care numai fapta o mai șterge.
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The inheritance
O avere așteptată, pe care numai o moarte o desparte de mână.
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Blackmail
Un secret ținut ca funia la gât, strâns exact cât trebuie.
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Jealousy
Otrava care mistuie pe cel ce râvnește ce nu-i al lui.
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Greed
Dorința nesățioasă de avere, care nu se oprește la nimic.
Moments
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At dawn
When the citadel is barely waking and the guards still doze.
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After matins
The hour after the morning service, when the abbey empties.
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At noon
Midday, with bustle in the markets and silence in the alcoves.
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At dusk
When the shadows lengthen and the lanterns are not yet lit.
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At vespers
At the evening service, when the bells drown out any footstep.
Everything that could be learned
Here is the whole file, as the investigator received it. Not one row is spare — it was checked by removing each in turn and watching the unique solution disappear.
- A maid whispered it at confession: the suspect with brown eyes was at the abbey library.
- The chronicler notes drily: blackmail matches that hour: after matins, whatever the court may say.
- In the gate ledger, the tallest suspect stands higher, Damaschin the Healer lower.
- Two witnesses, upon their crest: Elisei the Stargazer never set foot in the place that smells of hay.
- The chronicler notes drily: the abbey library and the small wine cask go together, whatever the court may say.
- The gate guard swears: the cathedral crypt and the ledger of accounts go together.
- Whatever the market gossips: the shortest suspect was not present at dawn.
- A note in the margin of the ledger: if Chamberlain Iorgu was at the great stable, then the suspect with brown eyes was driven by the inheritance.
- A maid whispered it at confession: the shortest suspect was driven by revenge.
- A maid whispered it at confession: the hunting crossbow and greed go together.
- The chronicler notes drily: the north wall matches that hour: at vespers, whatever the court may say.
- An honest-faced witness saw it plainly: the herald's horn matches that hour: after matins.
- An unsigned note, slipped under the door: "the culprit was in the place the patrol skirts when the wind blows".
- A maid whispered it at confession: the cathedral crypt matches that hour: at dawn.
- The bell-ringer remembers well: the suspect with dark eyes came earlier than Chamberlain Iorgu.
- The tracks in the dust do not lie: the locked chest matches that hour: at dusk.
Open the full reasoning — open only if you have already tried the dossier
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 clerk read the next line aloud: “A maid whispered it at confession: the suspect with brown eyes was at the abbey library”. A pair was tied, and the knot dragged a whole handful of impossibilities after it.
The Chancellery asked for one more check, and received it: “The chronicler notes drily: blackmail matches that hour: after matins, whatever the court may say”. The match was nailed down, and the rest of the row was left clean, like a page wiped with a sponge.
A piece of information dearly bought showed its worth: “In the gate ledger, the tallest suspect stands higher, Damaschin the Healer lower”. The grid lost freedom the way a river loses its banks as it nears the sea.
Then came, one after another, the findings that drew the noose tight: “Two witnesses, upon their crest: Elisei the Stargazer never set foot in the place that smells of hay”; “The chronicler notes drily: the abbey library and the small wine cask go together, whatever the court may say”; “The gate guard swears: the cathedral crypt and the ledger of accounts go together”; “Whatever the market gossips: the shortest suspect was not present at dawn”; “A note in the margin of the ledger: if Chamberlain Iorgu was at the great stable, then the suspect with brown eyes was driven by the inheritance”; “A maid whispered it at confession: the shortest suspect was driven by revenge”; “A maid whispered it at confession: the hunting crossbow and greed go together”; “The chronicler notes drily: the north wall matches that hour: at vespers, whatever the court may say”; “An honest-faced witness saw it plainly: the herald's horn matches that hour: after matins”; “An unsigned note, slipped under the door: "the culprit was in the place the patrol skirts when the wind blows"”; “A maid whispered it at confession: the cathedral crypt matches that hour: at dawn”. Taken one at a time they seemed slight; laid together in the grid, they left one arrangement alone possible.
A note in the margin of the page read: “The bell-ringer remembers well: the suspect with dark eyes came earlier than Chamberlain Iorgu”. One more binding drew tight, and the grid lost a little more of its freedom.
The next line was the one that changed the reckoning: “The tracks in the dust do not lie: the locked chest matches that hour: at dusk”. Once the tick was placed, the investigation had nothing left to argue on that row and moved on.
The verdict
The Chancellery pronounced its verdict without hesitation: the culprit is Damaschin the Healer. At the hour in question, Damaschin the Healer was at the north wall, handled the hunting crossbow, was driven by greed and was there at vespers. 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 IV.
The remaining suspects
And here is what had become of the others, in that same hour: Duchess Amara de Corvin was at the cathedral crypt, handled the ledger of accounts, was driven by jealousy and was there at dawn; Elisei the Stargazer was at the old chapel, handled the locked chest, was driven by revenge and was there at dusk; Chamberlain Iorgu was at the great stable, handled the herald's horn, was driven by blackmail and was there after matins; Mihu the Archer was at the abbey library, handled the small wine cask, was driven by the inheritance and was there at noon. Not one of the rows above is spare — remove it and the grid opens again.
The truth did not surface in a flash of insight but out of a run of small cuts, every one of them checkable.
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.