Episode 4

Currently on Renfaire Regicide...

With your help, Art has successfully cleared Morgan and Danny of involvement in Hank's murder, but now a new mystery has appeared. A mysterious note from some anonymous volunteers was found nailed to the door of the Royal Lounge, demanding changes to the faire. Danny steps forward to help Art with the case, telling her the volunteers are planning something, but he doesn't know what.

Hints

Group Name

  • The group name you need to find will involve a mixture of puzzle-solving and critical reading.

Hierophant

  • Look closely at the documents Art recently sent you. They may have clues about the Hierophant's identity.

Logging On

  • Check Art's letter for the specific task she assigns you: figure out where she can go to find out what the volunteers are up to. Go to michellegrayinvestigations.com and enter the password PORTER. Then, click on the RENFAIRE folder and enter the password BUGGY to access this episode's digital evidence and communicate with Art.

Meeting Place

  • The place you need to go may not be within the bounds of the faire.
  • A suggestion of this place may be hidden behind a code you've encountered before.
  • The place name is only mentioned in one location in this episode.

Password

  • Danny wants to help Art solve the murder. Does he suggest any place to start looking?
  • The password is a word and not a number.
  • Are there any documents in this episode that have so far gone unused?

Reveals

Group Name

  • The group name is hidden within the bestiary packet.
  • Decoded, the second half of the alchemical language in the bestiary packet reads "meet beneath the man, the lion, and the scorpion".
  • The only creature in the bestiary packet that is a combination of man, lion, and scorpion is the Manticore. The group name is "Manticore".
  • To complete the second objective and advance the story, open the messaging client on the desktop and send Art a message with the word "Manticore". She'll respond with your next task for this episode.

Hierophant

  • In the groupchat screenshots, the Hierophant mentions the tarot event pitch was their idea.
  • Vivian wrote the tarot event pitch. She is the Hierophant.
  • To complete the final objective and advance the story, open the messaging client on the desktop and send Art a message with the name "Vivian". She'll respond with the conclusion for this episode.

Meeting Place

  • The place you need to search is not a physical location.
  • The bestiary packet contains a hint of where this place is, underneath a code you've encountered before.
  • When the alchemical language is decoded in the bestiary packet, it reads "download the app" for a place to talk secretly.
  • The Good Fences posts contain the name of this app.
  • The app name is "Anarchy".
  • To complete the first objective and advance the story, open the messaging client on the desktop and send Art a message with the word "Anarchy". She'll respond with your next task for this episode.

Password

  • Danny suggests in the pledge of fealty that the flower brooch is a hint to something Vivian is planning.
  • The tarot event pitch includes a riddle that mentions petals and leaves. Begin with The Fool as your first card and move clockwise around the border of the document.
  • To find the password, you must pull certain letters from the names of cards in the border of the tarot event pitch. The idea is that the number of petals and the number of leaves will give two different numbers to count by, which will indicate which cards from the border will be used. The final line of the riddle is a series of numbers, which works like a book cipher, indicating which letters from the selected cards are used to create the password.

  • Count every fifth card, as that is the number of petals on the flower brooch. You should have the following:

    • The Emperor
    • The Hermit
    • Temperance
    • The Sun

  • Count every second card, as that is the number of leaves on the flower brooch. You should have the following:

    • The Magician
    • The Empress
    • The Hierophant
    • The Chariot
    • The Hermit
    • Strength
    • Death
    • The Devil
    • The Star
    • The Sun
    • The World
  • Using the numbers at the end of the tarot event pitch, pull specific letters from each card, omitting a choice if there is an X. For example, the fifth letter of "The Emperor" is M, so the first letter of the password is M. X indicates that you should skip "The Hermit" card, so the second letter of the password is the 7th letter of "Temperance".

  • You should end up with the following:

    • Petals - 5 / X / 7 / 6 = M-A-N
    • Leaves - 3 / X / 11/ 10 / 5 / 3 / X / X / 4 / X / X = E-A-T-E-R-S
  • The password for the Manticore group on Anarchy is MANEATERS.

  • To complete the third objective and advance the story, open the messaging client on the desktop and send Art a message with the word "Maneaters". She'll respond with your next task for this episode.

Transcripts

Anonymous List of Demands

Hear us.

We come to the White Hilt because we love it. But love can only take us so far. Do not wait for the day love becomes, simply, not enough.

We understand the realities of what it meant to be closed last year. We understand deeply the tragedy of what happened to our king. In the wake of events both unexpected and tragic, all citizens of the realm must rise.

But we have all risen equally. The burden of responsibility has unduly been placed on those of us who are already giving everything, and are now expected to give more.

We expect our monarchs to implement the following:

  • No additional fees for vendor booth installation
  • A reversal of all additional duty assignments
  • A proper training program for each faire duty
  • A return to locally sourced goods and services

Our people are greater than your profits. And our people are willing to break bread if you are ready.

We await your response.

Bestiary Packet

  • Manticore
  • [mysterious alchemical text written underneath]
  • Peacock
  • [mysterious alchemical text written underneath]
  • Skorpion
  • Sphinx
  • Syren
  • Unicorn
  • Vulture
  • [mysterious alchemical text written underneath]
  • A Medieval Bestiary
  • Animals of the Middle Ages
  • [mysterious alchemical text written underneath]
  • Ape
  • Badger
  • Basilisk
  • Bat
  • Camel
  • Centaur
  • Chimera
  • Crab
  • Dragon
  • Elefant
  • Giraffe
  • Griffone
  • Ibex
  • Leopard

Excalibur Concept Art

Below the Sketch of Excalibur → Chester's Handwriting

  • With a tank under the stage we can fake a lake.

Expanded Kingdom Map

Hank's Handwriting

  • A moat? Maybe some sort of medieval lazy river? Never gets hot enough in the summer.
  • Barracks, or add more apartments over stalls? Better to build up than out.
  • Add another room for historical presentations with museum-style films? Chester is a film editor? If someone reigns him in.
  • Lot #52 for sale. Heard Morgan wants it. When I talk to him, it'll have to be in private.
  • Expanding into town too expensive. Besides, we don't want to buy out other businesses. But maybe we could build us a bigger theater so we have something in the off-season?

Green Knight Letter

Front → Unknown Handwriting

  • Artemis

 

Inside → Unknown Handwriting

Thou heed'st not my warning

And so your reckless war

Paints red the morning sun.

 

Cease thine foolhardy crusade

Before thou find'st yourself curs'd

To be alone, alone, alone, alone,

 

Alone but for my vengeful eye.

I see thee slithering in grass too high,

Tasting the air of opportunity.

Delicious to play detective, is it?

 

Lay the king upon the pyre

Entomb the investigation of thine sire.

 

Leave. Go home. I'll know when you do

and if you don't...

 

The Green Knight

Pledge of Fealty

Danny's Handwriting

Artemis,

Thanks for not ratting on me. Messing with the costume was a stupid decision. Bad stuff's happened to you too. I'm sure you did something stupid after. Knowing you, it was probably more sensible. But what you're doing now, after Hank and Sam, it's got me thinking.

I lied when I said I didn't know anything about Cam and Lynn sleeping together. That's why I wanted to pass this on to you. I want to help. I believe you're doing the right thing.

Something is about to happen that the others won't tell me about. And I think it's got something to do with Vivian. She was talking about this brooch, so I took it from her stall. It's ok. She has more of them, she won't notice this one's missing.

Seems kind of fitting, doesn't it? At the beginning I'm laying down spurs to challenge Hank, now I'm giving a rose to a maiden to pledge my fealty. That's what this is. I want to help. If there's any way I can help you figure out what's going on here, know that I'm on your side.

 

Danny

Tarot Event Pitch

Vivian's Handwriting

  • Whoever's with me, we're testing this out on tournament day. Chester and Lynn be damned.

Solution

  • Art asks for your help in solving the mystery of what some of the volunteers were planning when the group left an anonymous list of demands on the door of the Royal Lounge. To discover who left this message and what they're planning, you must first figure out where to go to find more information. The answer is not a physical location, but is nevertheless a place. Vivian, in the bestiary packet, leaves a secret note to some of the other volunteers in the alchemical language that, when decoded, says to "download the app" for a place to talk secretly. Mention of an app can be found in the Good Fences posts, where someone writes about the free expression allowed on "Anarchy". That is the place Art can go to find more information on the discontent at the faire.
  • To complete the first objective and advance the story, open the messaging client on the desktop and send Art a message with the word "Anarchy". She'll respond with your next task for this episode.
  • However, Anarchy is the name of the overall app, and Art needs the specific group name of where the volunteers are gathering. By decoding the rest of the alchemical language on the bestiary packet, you can see that Vivian tells them to "meet beneath the man, the lion, and the scorpion". Reading the rest of the bestiary packet will reveal these to be the features of the mythological creature known as the Manticore, making "Manticore" the specific group name Art is looking for.
  • To complete the second objective and advance the story, open the messaging client on the desktop and send Art a message with the word "Manticore". She'll respond with your next task for this episode.
  • Art soon encounters another problem: the Manticore group chat on Anarchy is locked with a password. To get inside, Art needs the password. To find it, you must consult the tarot event pitch and pull certain letters from the names of the tarot cards in the decorative border of the document. The number of petals and the number of leaves will give two different numbers to count by, which will indicate which cards from the border will be used. An X indicates that a card is to be skipped. The final line of the riddle is a series of numbers, which works like a book cipher, indicating which letters from the selected cards are used to create the password. Following this process, beginning with The Fool as the starting point, you'll discover that the "petals" letters decode to "M-A-N" and the "leaves" letters decode to "E-A-T-E-R-S", making "MANEATERS" the final password.
  • To complete the third objective and advance the story, open the messaging client on the desktop and send Art a message with the word "Maneater". She'll respond with some screenshots and your next task for this episode.
  • To identify the Hierophant, you must reference the groupchat screenshots, where they mention that the tarot event pitch is their idea. The tarot event pitch was written by Vivian, identifying her as the Hierophant. At the time of the murder, Vivian was taking notes with a few fellow volunteers, with the intent of leaving the White Hilt and starting her own Renaissance festival to get out from under the thumbs of Chester, Hank, and Lynn.
  • To complete the final objective and advance the story, open the messaging client on the desktop and send Art a message with the name "Vivian". She'll respond with the conclusion for this episode where she promises to send another package with new evidence. Until then, Detective!

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