Currently on Renfaire Regicide...

The king of a local Renaissance festival was found murdered and burned in the iron smith's forge. A suspect has been arrested, but Artemis Troy, the faire's squire, is the only one who believes in their innocence. Art reaches out to you to help find the true culprit.

Hints

Logging On

• Check Art's letter for the specific task she assigns you: figure out who left the spurs on Hank's car. Go to michellegrayinvestigations.com and enter the password PORTER. Then, click on the RENFAIRE folder and enter the password ARTHUR to access this episode's digital evidence and communicate with Art.

Scarecrow

• What does the note on the scarecrow say? Figuring out its intent may help discover the person who planted it.

Spurs Co-Conspirator

• Is there proof anyone else knew about Danny's plan with the spurs?
• Is there any information in the evidence provided that suggests a close friendship between Danny and any other character?
• Could this potential friend of Danny's have helped him in any capacity?

Spurs Culprit

• Some characters have recently suffered demotions at the faire. Is there a place where these reassigned roles can be found?
• Are there any pieces of evidence that clearly establish relationships between Hank and anyone else at the faire?
• Take a closer look at the kickoff event invite; there appears to be something written on the back. Does that arrangement of symbols have any meaning elsewhere?
• Is there any information in the evidence Art sent that would hint toward an upcoming confrontation between Hank and another character?

Swapped Sword

• Are there any obvious altercations involving a sword that are documented in the provided evidence?
• Have you stumbled across any text that looked like it may be an obvious code?

Vacant Plot

• Take a look at all your evidence. Is there a document that provides a wider view of the town and its land?
• Is there a document within the provided evidence that establishes a character's interest in the field beside the fairgrounds?

Reveals

Scarecrow

• The note on the scarecrow references "outside help to supply the kingdom". What could this be referring to?
• The meeting minutes digital document references a character who was upset with Hank's decision to outsource material to help supply the faire.
• Vivian placed the scarecrow.
• To complete the third 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 your next task for this episode.

Spurs Co-Conspirator

• The decoded football code on the back of the kickoff event invite reveals at least one other person knew about Danny's plan with the spurs.
• In the request for leave, Danny says Cameron helped him research his knight role.
• Cameron is the friend that helped Danny with the spurs plan.
• To complete the second objective and advance the story, open the messaging client on the desktop and send Art a message with the name "Cameron". She'll respond with your next task for this episode.

Spurs Culprit

• The annotated outline, which can be found on the digital desktop, announces that Danny's assigned role for this season of the Renaissance faire has been changed from a knight to a jester. You can see his angry reaction in the document comments.
• The request for leave establishes the antagonistic relationship between Hank and Danny. In this note, Danny also mentions that he spent a lot of time researching knighthood.
• The kickoff event invite includes a handwritten note from Danny. Its code is reminiscent of a football play, and Danny's short bio on the White Hilt website establishes the fact that he was a former football player.
• Decoding the message involves laying the X symbols over the words and then moving the position of the words according to the arrows.
• The decoded message says "distract him and I will leave our message on his car".
• The "Life in Medieval Times" section of the renfaire handbook notes that a knight would challenge another to a duel by leaving his riding spurs on the horse of the offending knight. Art also mentions this fact in her letter.
• In response to his demotion from knight to jester, Danny left a pair of spurs on Hank's car to challenge his authority.
• To complete the first objective and advance the story, open the messaging client on the desktop and send Art a message with the name "Danny". She'll respond with your next task for this episode.

Swapped Sword

• The fight video shows Hank was injured with a sharp, real sword that replaced the "hero" prop sword meant to be used.
• On the annotated outline, Chester highlights the Excalibur sword name and leaves a comment with a bunch of random letters. Lynn thinks his cat stepped on the keyboard, but your expert detective skills can identify this jumbled message as a code.
• In Chester's comment, the phrase "one step behind the name of the ring" is the key to solving the code.
• The heraldry ring features a lion, so you can deduce that LION is the keyword for the code.
• In the string of letters in Chester's comment, you'll see the letters L-I-O-N repeated a few times. "One step behind" LION indicates that you should look at the letter directly to the right of each L, I, O, and N. For example, in the first few letters of the code, you'll see L, T, G, T, I, and H. L is part of the keyword LION, so T, the letter directly to the right of L, is the first letter of the decoded phrase. Next, G and T can be ignored until you reach I, the next letter in LION. This means that H is the second letter of the decoded phrase. Continue pulling the necessary letters in this fashion for the rest of Chester's comment.
• Chester's decoded message says "the swap has been made". Therefore, you can conclude that Chester swapped the "hero" prop sword with a real, sharp sword.
• To complete the final objective and advance the story, open the messaging client on the desktop and send Art a message with the name "Chester". She'll respond with the conclusion for this episode.

Vacant Plot

• The map of Tall Oaks shows that the fairgrounds are surrounded by agricultural plots of land (farms).
• The meeting minutes digital document announces an upcoming expansion of White Hilt into neighboring farmland. Information found on the White Hilt website and the annotated outline reveals that Morgan is a local farmer.
• The Good Fences posts screenshots show that Morgan is interested in purchasing the vacant plot of land between his farm and the fairgrounds. Since Hank and Morgan are trying to purchase the same plot of land, Morgan helps Vivian post the scarecrow with its warning message.
• To complete the fourth objective and advance the story, open the messaging client on the desktop and send Art a message with the name "Morgan". She'll respond with your next task for this episode.

Transcripts

Concert Poster

Back → Chester's Handwriting

• Call me sometime, kid. I can get you a better gig than putting up with those punks. - Chester Russo

Fight Video

Hank: Are you out of your bloody mind?! I could have got my head chopped off! What's the matter with you?

Sam (defensive): No - that wasn't me!

Hank: How could you now know - you're holding the stupid thing!

[Hank gets closer, gesturing toward the wound on his shoulder, but Sam holds her ground.]

Sam (sternly): Back up. Back up.

Hank: What?

Sam: Back up before something stupid really happens.

[Hank refuses to back away.]

Hank: Something stupid already happened!

[Off-screen, Cameron laughs. Hank steps forward, and Sam pushes her hands out, shoving him back. Seeing the fight, Chester and Lynn rush over. There's a cacophony of sound as everyone keeps shouting. Lynn separates Hank and Chester separates Sam.]

Chester (smarmy, appeasing): (to Sam and Hank) Whoa! Whoa! It was just a little accident, okay? Stuff like this happens all the time. It's not like anybody really got hurt.

[Hank gestures vaguely to Lynn, as if suggesting she say something to back him up.]

Lynn (stern): If you can't handle a hero sword, maybe you shouldn't have one.

Cameron (off-screen, laughing): Ooh!

Hank (to Sam): We will discuss this later in private.

[Hank and Lynn turn to walk away, and the video ends.]

Kickoff Event Invite

Front → Danny's Handwriting

• Hank moved it to Saturday now, after the sword incident

Back → Danny's Handwriting

• will I leave him on our car and distract his message

Map of Tall Oaks

Top → Art's Handwriting

• X My home

Bottom → Art's Handwriting

• Our faire

Police Statement Video

[A police officer stands at a podium and reads a statement.]

Police Officer (objective, but respectful): Thank you for joining us here today. I will be reading an official statement provided by the department. We will not be taking any questions at this time.

Hank Maartens, the proprietor of the White Hilt Renaissance Faire, was found murdered early last Saturday morning, June 11. We believe the murder occurred the night prior, at around midnight, and an unsuccessful attempt was made to dispose of the body.

I am able to report that this morning, we made an arrest in the case. The fairgrounds are officially no longer a crime scene and can safely reopen. That is all the information we can give at this time. Again, there will be no questions and answers. Thank you.

[As the police officer takes the statement from the podium and turns to leave, the video ends.]

Prison Recording

Art: How are you doing? Sorry. That's a stupid question.

Sam: It's alright. I'm going... yeah, I'm doing. It's good to see you. No one else has been here.

Art: By the gods...

Sam: Look, kid, I know what you're about to do.

Art: Tell me what happened that night.

Sam: That. Don't.

Art: I know you didn't do this. You know you didn't do this.

Sam: It doesn't matter. All that matters is what they think. They've already made up their minds.

Art: Sam. Please just tell me.

Sam: I went home that night. By myself. After that day and fight with Hank, I just parked my ass on the couch and fell asleep. I was alone.

Art: And that's all?

Sam: That's it.

Art: What about bail?

Sam: You got a hundred Gs laying around?

Art: How is that even fair?

Sam: It isn't. They -

[The recording abruptly cuts off.]