Chronicle of the solution: The Vespers Intrigue
Poisoning Tier II
The poisoning file is closed. What remains is the part worth learning: how one got from an upturned cup to a name.
The deed, as it was recorded
Someone slipped poison where it did not belong, and now the whole court eyes its goblets warily. The dose was measured with care — enough not to look like chance, too little to go unpunished. Before you, one by one, will stand Mihu the Archer, Manole the Jeweller, Iustin the Mariner and Damaschin the Healer. The testimonies cling to certain hours: "at dawn", "after matins", "at noon" and "at dusk". Study the testimonies at your leisure, fit them into the grid, and pronounce your verdict without haste.
The circle closed around these names: Mihu the Archer, Manole the Jeweller, Iustin the Mariner and Damaschin the Healer. The investigation was not permitted to step outside it, and had no need to.
The suspects
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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
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Manole the Jeweller
He tells gold from gilt at a glance. With people, he admits, it takes him two.
1.69 m tall · brown eyes · brown hair · right-handed
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Iustin the Mariner
He brings goods from ports with unpronounceable names. Half the cargo never appears in the customs records.
1.78 m tall · blue eyes · black hair · left-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
Locations
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The wharf
Moored boats, wet ropes, and goods that prefer to arrive in the fog.
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The castle cellar
Barrels as big as carts and corners the lantern never reaches.
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The tourney field
Empty stands outside festival days. An excellent place for meetings that never happened.
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The customs cellar
Sealed crates, thick ledgers, and air that smells of undeclared goods.
Objects
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The abbess's bell
It calls the nuns to prayer. On the night in question, they all say, it rang once too many.
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The map of the realm
The kingdom's borders, drawn with a fresh correction where there should be none.
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The purse of gold coins
New coins, unworn, from a minting not yet in circulation. Interesting.
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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.
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.
The findings and the testimonies
The list below is complete and pared to the bone. The Chancellery keeps no useless rows on file: each cuts something no other cuts.
- Every scout reports the same about the culprit: the culprit was at the tourney field.
- The tracks in the dust do not lie: the purse of gold coins matches that hour: at dusk.
- A maid whispered it at confession: Damaschin the Healer was there at dusk.
- The tracks in the dust do not lie: Manole the Jeweller was there at dawn.
- The tracks in the dust do not lie: the tourney field matches that hour: at dawn.
- A note in the margin of the ledger: if the suspect with green eyes handled the purse of gold coins, then the tallest suspect handled the abbess's bell.
- A maid whispered it at confession: the map of the realm matches that hour: at dawn.
- The tracks in the dust do not lie: the castle cellar matches that hour: at noon.
- The gate guard swears: the wharf and the abbess's bell go together.
See how the verdict was reached — open only if you have already tried the dossier
How the circle closed
It began with certainties, however small. A small certainty closes an entire row, and closed rows add up quickly.
A note in the margin of the page read: “Every scout reports the same about the culprit: the culprit was at the tourney field”. One attribute of the culprit, no more. Enough, though, to leave on the list only whoever has it.
This particular came to light as well: “The tracks in the dust do not lie: the purse of gold coins matches that hour: at dusk”. The match was nailed down, and the rest of the row was left clean, like a page wiped with a sponge.
There followed a detail that narrowed the circle: “A maid whispered it at confession: Damaschin the Healer was there at dusk”. From then on that cell could no longer be disputed, and the dispute moved one row down.
Then came, one after another, the findings that drew the noose tight: “The tracks in the dust do not lie: Manole the Jeweller was there at dawn”; “The tracks in the dust do not lie: the tourney field matches that hour: at dawn”; “A note in the margin of the ledger: if the suspect with green eyes handled the purse of gold coins, then the tallest suspect handled the abbess's bell”; “A maid whispered it at confession: the map of the realm matches that hour: at dawn”. At the end of them the grid looked like an almost-erased page: one cell alone still had anything to say.
A piece of information dearly bought showed its worth: “The tracks in the dust do not lie: the castle cellar matches that hour: at noon”. A certain match thus enters the grid, and its row and column empty at once of every other possibility.
Then this finding entered the file: “The gate guard swears: the wharf and the abbess's bell go together”. Two names bound themselves for good, and the binding undid, at a stroke, every pairing that contradicted it.
The seal on the file
The verdict wrote itself — the culprit is Manole the Jeweller. At the hour of the deed, Manole the Jeweller was at the tourney field, handled the map of the realm and was there at dawn. Nothing in this verdict rests on supposition: every row comes out of the grid.
Those taken out of the circle
The innocent were not left without a story; each had a place of their own: Mihu the Archer was at the castle cellar, handled the bronze key and was there at noon; Iustin the Mariner was at the wharf, handled the abbess's bell and was there after matins; Damaschin the Healer was at the customs cellar, handled the purse of gold coins and was there at dusk. They look like rows of padding and they are not: the whole of the rest rests on them.
Whoever reads this chronicle years from now will find in it less a deed than a method.
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.