Chronicle of the solution: The Signature of the Chancellery
Theft Tier I
The archivist has tied the file with red cord, the sign that the theft has found its author. The chronicle below shows how.
The deed, as it was recorded
The bells had barely finished ringing when word reached the Chancellery: a theft, within the very walls. The culprit worked cleanly, but not without witnesses — and the witnesses, at last, have begun to talk. Before you, one by one, will stand Luca the Squire, Costache the Toll-Keeper and Chancellor Veniamin. The places named in the testimonies — the watchtower, the merchant's house and the mill by the river — each await their turn under scrutiny. Study the testimonies at your leisure, fit them into the grid, and pronounce your verdict without haste.
The Chancellery had to weigh Luca the Squire, Costache the Toll-Keeper and Chancellor Veniamin. All of them had opportunity, and for that very reason opportunity was worth nothing.
The suspects
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Luca the Squire
He polishes the knight's armour and dreams of a sword of his own. For a coat of arms he would do almost anything.
1.72 m tall · green eyes · brown hair · right-handed
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Costache the Toll-Keeper
His scales weigh the goods; his eye, the merchant. Both can be "greased" at need.
1.80 m tall · dark eyes · grey hair · right-handed
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Chancellor Veniamin
Every charter of the kingdom passes through his hands. A comma he once moved started a war.
1.64 m tall · grey eyes · no hair · left-handed
Locations
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The watchtower
The highest point of the fortress. From here you see everything - and from below, everyone sees who climbs up.
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The merchant's house
Carpets brought from overseas and a desk with more secret drawers than drawers.
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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.
What the Chancellery had to hand
The list below is complete and pared to the bone. The Chancellery keeps no useless rows on file: each cuts something no other cuts.
- An unsigned note, slipped under the door: "the culprit was at the watchtower".
- An honest-faced witness saw it plainly: the suspect with grey hair was at the mill by the river.
- The hounds caught no scent at all: Chancellor Veniamin never set foot in the place with more secret drawers than drawers.
Reveal the Chancellery's reasoning — the culprit's name is spoken from here on
How it was unravelled
It began with certainties, however small. A small certainty closes an entire row, and closed rows add up quickly.
This too was added to the file: “An unsigned note, slipped under the door: "the culprit was at the watchtower"”. Without uttering a single name, this line divided the suspects into two camps: those it fitted and those it did not.
This particular came to light as well: “An honest-faced witness saw it plainly: the suspect with grey hair was at the mill by the river”. A certain match thus enters the grid, and its row and column empty at once of every other possibility.
The archivist underlined the following line with his nail: “The hounds caught no scent at all: Chancellor Veniamin never set foot in the place with more secret drawers than drawers”. One more door closed. Investigations are not won on suspicions but on doors closed one at a time.
The culprit's name
The Chancellery pronounced its verdict without hesitation: the culprit is Chancellor Veniamin. The grid shows plainly how matters stood: Chancellor Veniamin was at the watchtower. Nothing was assumed along the way; every step can be redone with a pencil on paper.
Where the others were
And here is what had become of the others, in that same hour: Luca the Squire was at the merchant's house; Costache the Toll-Keeper was at the mill by the river. Not one of the rows above is spare — remove it and the grid opens again.
The dossier is closed, but the method stays open to anyone with the patience to count cells.
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.