Chronicle of the solution: The Sign of the Banquet
Theft Tier III
The theft dossier is closed, and the Chancellery now permits itself to tell, at leisure, how it was unravelled.
The deed, as it was recorded
In Realm of the Crown, only one thing is spoken of today: a daring theft, carried out almost before the court's eyes. The Chancellery has set every other file aside: until what was taken returns, no one sleeps easy. The testimonies keep returning to the same names: Abbot Corvus, Zaharia the Spice Merchant, Mother Evghenia, Tintar the Jester and Onufrie the Executioner. Among the things spoken of in whispers are the bronze key, the vial of belladonna, the ciphered letter, the rusted sword and the broken lantern. A sharp eye is not enough here — it takes an archivist's patience: fit everything together, then pronounce your verdict.
The dossier opened with Abbot Corvus, Zaharia the Spice Merchant, Mother Evghenia, Tintar the Jester and Onufrie the Executioner — a short list, as the Chancellery likes them, because short means it can be finished.
The suspects
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Abbot Corvus
He raises ravens in the abbey tower. His birds arrive faster than any messenger - and cannot be held to account.
1.78 m tall · dark eyes · no hair · right-handed
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Zaharia the Spice Merchant
His ships bring pepper, saffron, and news no one asked for. All of it at the same price: steep.
1.74 m tall · dark eyes · black hair · right-handed
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Mother Evghenia
She runs the abbey with an iron hand and a golden pen. The register of donations has pages she shows no one.
1.60 m tall · dark eyes · black hair · right-handed
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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
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Onufrie the Executioner
A quiet man with a loud trade. He keeps a notebook of the last words of every condemned soul.
1.92 m tall · dark eyes · no hair · right-handed
Locations
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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 guild forge
Anvils, tongs, and a fire that never goes out. Many small metal things vanish here.
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The abbey library
Thousands of leather-bound tomes. Some of the chains on the shelves were cut recently.
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The wharf
Moored boats, wet ropes, and goods that prefer to arrive in the fog.
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The old dungeon
Cells abandoned since the new dungeon was built. "Abandoned" is one way of putting it.
Objects
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The bronze key
Heavy, old, its teeth worn smooth. No one knows what door it opens anymore - or so they say.
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The vial of belladonna
A small flask, a wax stopper, a label written with care. Three-quarters empty.
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The ciphered letter
Orderly rows of meaningless signs. The ink is costly, the paper costlier, the sender - unknown.
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The rusted sword
An old weapon, forgotten on the rack. The rust on the blade is newer than it looks.
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The broken lantern
The glass cracked, the wick burned to the end. Someone needed a lot of light, fast.
Motives
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Revenge
O datorie de sânge pe care numai fapta o mai șterge.
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Fear of exposure
Groaza de a fi dat în vileag, care împinge la orice.
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Greed
Dorința nesățioasă de avere, care nu se oprește la nimic.
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A debt of honour
O făgăduială care cântărește mai greu decât viața.
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Jealousy
Otrava care mistuie pe cel ce râvnește ce nu-i al lui.
The testimonies on file
This much was worked with, no more and no less. Minimality is not a figure of speech: each row was taken out in turn, at trial, and without it the solution ceased to be unique.
- The chronicler notes drily: Tintar the Jester was in the place where the fire never goes out, whatever the court may say.
- An honest-faced witness saw it plainly: Tintar the Jester handled the ciphered letter.
- The chronicler notes drily: the rusted sword and greed go together, whatever the court may say.
- Two witnesses, upon their crest: the abbey library and jealousy do not go together.
- The gate guard swears: the mill by the river and the broken lantern go together.
- The healer says it with a raised finger: if Tintar the Jester was at the guild forge, then Mother Evghenia was driven by a debt of honour.
- The healer says it with a raised finger: if Zaharia the Spice Merchant was at the wharf, then Onufrie the Executioner was in the place where the cells only seem abandoned.
- A maid whispered it at confession: Onufrie the Executioner handled the vial of belladonna.
- An honest-faced witness saw it plainly: the vial of belladonna and revenge go together.
- Even the jester says it in earnest: Zaharia the Spice Merchant was not driven by jealousy.
- The chronicler notes drily: the ciphered letter and fear of exposure go together, whatever the court may say.
- The gate guard swears: the wharf and greed go together.
- Tintar the Jester raises their right hand and says: "I was at the old dungeon".
Break the seal: the Chancellery's reasoning — warning: past this line, the mystery ends
How the circle closed
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 archivist underlined the following line with his nail: “The chronicler notes drily: Tintar the Jester was in the place where the fire never goes out, whatever the court may say”. A pair was tied, and the knot dragged a whole handful of impossibilities after it.
The examination of the place yielded this as well: “An honest-faced witness saw it plainly: Tintar the Jester handled the ciphered letter”. The tick goes down without hesitation, and with it fall all the other cells on that row and that column.
The gate register had kept a trace of its own: “The chronicler notes drily: the rusted sword and greed go together, 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.
The archivist copied on, without comment, everything that could be proved: “Two witnesses, upon their crest: the abbey library and jealousy do not go together”; “The gate guard swears: the mill by the river and the broken lantern go together”; “The healer says it with a raised finger: if Tintar the Jester was at the guild forge, then Mother Evghenia was driven by a debt of honour”; “The healer says it with a raised finger: if Zaharia the Spice Merchant was at the wharf, then Onufrie the Executioner was in the place where the cells only seem abandoned”; “A maid whispered it at confession: Onufrie the Executioner handled the vial of belladonna”; “An honest-faced witness saw it plainly: the vial of belladonna and revenge go together”; “Even the jester says it in earnest: Zaharia the Spice Merchant was not driven by jealousy”; “The chronicler notes drily: the ciphered letter and fear of exposure go together, whatever the court may say”. Each cut a strip out of the grid, and at the end of them the space remaining was the size of a name.
A report from the watch brought clarity: “The gate guard swears: the wharf and greed go together”. Once the tick was placed, the investigation had nothing left to argue on that row and moved on.
From one word to the next, the investigation arrived here: “Tintar the Jester raises their right hand and says: "I was at the old dungeon"”. Under the Supreme Law a testimony is not a finding: it weighs only if the one who speaks it is not the culprit.
Where the thread broke
Here everything broke. Tintar the Jester swore before the Chancellery that I was at the old dungeon — the one testimony in the whole file that will not sit with the rest of the grid. The truth, laid down by the other findings, is precisely the reverse: Tintar the Jester never set foot in the old dungeon. Under the Supreme Law only the culprit lies, and whoever lies names themselves.
The seal on the file
The name the grid could no longer force out of the circle is Tintar the Jester. When the deed took place, Tintar the Jester was at the guild forge, handled the ciphered letter and was driven by fear of exposure. Tier III is no empty word: without the method of hypotheses, this grid would not have closed.
Where the others were
The Chancellery recorded the others' movements as well, because it was precisely they that closed the grid: Abbot Corvus was at the mill by the river, handled the broken lantern and was driven by jealousy; Zaharia the Spice Merchant was at the wharf, handled the rusted sword and was driven by greed; Mother Evghenia was at the abbey library, handled the bronze key and was driven by a debt of honour; Onufrie the Executioner was at the old dungeon, handled the vial of belladonna and was driven by revenge. They look like rows of padding and they are not: the whole of the rest rests on them.
The Chancellery asked nobody to take its word. It showed the road step by step, so that anyone might walk it again.
Play this dossier All mysteries
The chronicle is written from the logic of the file, not from memory. The uniqueness of the solution was demonstrated by the solver before the dossier ever became public. behind the scenes at the Chancellery.