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I'm not sure if this kind of game's conducive to having clue points voted over for collaborative play, since there's SO many available at any one time and it'll feel like a slog if we only visit one after each round of voting. So I'll abstain for now. I'm interested in finding out the meaning of SP#10-A. Following the logic of the previous abbreviations: Folder Code Logic posted:ML-C = MineLeases-Coal = Coal Mine Leases I think Thaddeus Grant should be investigated in some way. Not sure where you'd go to check up on the founder of the 70 year old company, however. Maybe check the circumstances of his death in 1873 by visiting 17 WC at some point? Depending on when Courtney was shot, I think the slashed briefcase and the missing file can be explained by considering them separate events by two different individuals:
Also, we have no idea who the Spaniard in question is. Hector del Guerra, the military attache to the Spanish Embassy? The Spanish embassy itself? The name of a restaurant, bar, or other business? I guess I'd like to request a look-up for locales with Spanish/Spaniard/Espaņa/Espaņola in their name. There's also the slight possibility that Courtney's "Auf Wiedersehen" and wink at his brother don't hint at meeting with a woman for an affair, but instead signify a different kind of meeting. But that might be reaching too far on my part, since I can't think of anything or anyone in particular yet. ElTipejoLoco fucked around with this message at 21:40 on Oct 18, 2015 |
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Oct 18, 2015 21:34
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| # ¿ Apr 26, 2024 07:51 |
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The distance on the maps between either 5 EC or 12 SE and 25 SW is a little bit ridiculous to assume the body was moved on foot from the Spaniard's Inn. At least, without witnesses. I'd like to cross my fingers and hope visiting the Spaniard's Inn would reveal that it has some sort of vehicle tracks or evidence of the crime that helps at least point to either Grant Arms or the Plant, since it just occurred to me that either place could count as an Courtney Allen's office. Kangra posted:Southwick, Collis ....... 32 EC ZZZorcerer posted:The Arms Trade Fair seems to have lots of interesting things. Well, first, it's an arms trade fair, and our victim is in the gun industry, second, the brother hints about a meeting with a woman and a response "Auf wiedersehen" (even if it's not about the woman, it could mean something to do with the Krupp Works). I'm interested about the whole Krupp Works/German angle, but I'd rather have more information before following a possible dead end. I guess my votes for clue points would be, ranked in my personal opinion from most interesting at the top to least interesting at the bottom:
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Oct 19, 2015 08:35
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Kangra posted:I won't do any searches that can't be done by hand (e.g. I won't look up by first name or find every possible business such as 'The Lucky Spaniard') but the game doesn't expect you to do that either. Can I request a look-up for places whose names start with El, La, and Lugar in that case? Probably won't turn up anything, but why not check if the look-ups are free?
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Oct 19, 2015 18:10
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I was hoping the visit would also include us examining the vicinity. I assume that, since it didn't, there's a large possibility that the Spaniard's Inn isn't the place where the murder-theft actually took place. At least, I'd hope that a large-caliber weapon being fired nearby would be pretty hard to gloss over. The tidbit about identical briefcases is interesting though. Courtney's briefcase is currently missing, and we got one belonging to a certain A.M. Why and how were the briefcases exchanged? Was the slash on the briefcase caused by Courtney himself attempting to access a briefcase he lacked the key to? Edit: Wait, or did I misread that? Hrm. I thought for sure maybe there was one of those silly briefcase-daisy-chain-under-the-table-things old spy stories were so fond of, except in this case one of them had been lifted from the deceased prior to the exchange. If we wanted to narrow down which A.M. the briefcase belongs to, all we should need is to compare the handwriting of any one of them. I presume we can't specify we want to do this in our visit, though. So how would we go over that? And could Alexander Mishkin be an alias for Alexi Meshkoff? If so, heading to the Russian Embassy might be equivalent to confronting Mishkin. I'm assuming there's no point in revisiting Clue Points to see if there's additional information, right? So, here's my slightly updated personal vote list:
ElTipejoLoco fucked around with this message at 22:12 on Oct 20, 2015 |
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Oct 20, 2015 22:04
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Hyper Crab Tank posted:Courtney Allen is lying dead in an alleyway at this point in time, watched over by cops, and he's got his (slashed) briefcase with him. What we have here is two men, neither of which are conclusively linked to this case, who happen to have identical briefcases, plus a third briefcase (Allen's) that we don't know whether it resembles the other two or not. It's also not missing, Sherlock Holmes was just mucking about with it. There's a possibility that William Linhart, as Courtney's secretary, writes all his notes. But then that'd mean William Linhart sent that 'meet behind Spaniard's' note... which would be perhaps too confusing? I don't know. The notebook and the note were found outside of the suitcase, in any case. And it doesn't matter that Courtney was found dead with a suitcase at 7:00 PM- any time before that, perhaps when the actual shooting took place, is plenty of time for any one person to switch out the suitcase for another one and then make their merry way to any other place. In any case, my wild theory admittedly holds little to no water and doesn't actually help pick the next clue point. But I've got nothing in mind besides it at the moment. I don't yet know if the suspicions of an affair or the identity of Captain Egan are of any import. For all I know we're already following a pretty big red herring- but I really do want to just know what SP#10-A could've possibly been, so I've just been jumping at whatever appears to lead to a resolution for that particular mystery. If it stood for Allen Secret Payoff #10 I'd be okay with that.
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Oct 20, 2015 22:47
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I'm extremely happy that the SP#10-A file's meaning has apparently been revealed, but I'm a little confused as to what (or how) to follow some of the new trails revealed by the visit to Grant Arms. Mainly the cigarettes. The one thing that hasn't been solidified yet is whether or not the shooting and the robbery are actually linked to a single perpetrator. It's possible the slash on the briefcase is also a red herring, I guess, unless the questionaire at the end asks us to address its circumstances for more points. How would we investigate the Countess or Captain Egan? Do we do look-ups for locales whose names start with Admiralty or German? I presume there's no shops that are dedicated specifically to the import and sale of cigars, but maybe we should also try a look-up for something like that? I forget if at the time things like persons traveling with tobacco or nicotine goods were difficult due to customs or taxes.
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Oct 22, 2015 22:30
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Thanks for the look-ups. Here's my votes:
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Oct 23, 2015 04:08
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Hyper Crab Tank posted:This would also explain the note. Consider this sequence of events: Ragland is in cahoots with "A.M." - perhaps the Russian diplomat suspected earlier. A.M. sends a note to Ragland to set up a meeting at 9 that night, Allen intercepts it, and wises on to the plan. He steals or rips up the original note and writes a new one with a later time (10). He takes the Special Project #10 plans out of the safe and hides them in his briefcase, then sets up the meeting with Egan, hoping to discuss his findings and set up an arrest for Ragland. Ragland, meanwhile, finds the plans missing and realizes the note is in the wrong handwriting, finds Allen and confronts him about the note, kills him, steals the SP#10 plans (first struggling with the briefcase), and leaves the note in the victim's handwriting behind. He meets with A.M. at the original time, putting the plans in a briefcase; the two swap briefcases, Ragland gets a fat payoff, and pays off the debt the next day. Should we continue visiting clue points, or see how close we are to the truth as is, though? I'm wondering if it's worth it to try and go for points or just be as thorough as possible.
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Oct 24, 2015 18:44
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Kangra posted:Hyper Crab Tank discovered it already (see the notes in this post). I don't know if it was one that the writers expected people to know off-hand, but it's a nice historical detail. 16 NW seems like an alright direction to head in, though I'm not sure if premium versions of cigarettes are guaranteed to only be sold in-land and not carried in from wherever a person came from. I'm also still uncertain if whomever was hiding in the alley was, in fact, the shooter. I mean, Courtney got shot point-blank in the chest with a high-caliber gun, right? I don't think he was afraid of his shooter, and the type of gun makes me think stealth or subtlety weren't part of the killer's modus operandi. I think the cigarettes won't lead us to the killer, myself, but I do want to find out who they lead to. Barring that, I do think visiting 34 SW, 10 SW, or 51 SW might be worth it regardless of the suspects' presence. Meshkoff, the Admiralty, or the Countess's places could all yield clues from snooping or talking with unrelated persons, much like visiting the plant did, that I assume a straightforward interview might not.
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Oct 25, 2015 11:46
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I guess, but doesn't that make the cigarette that was found in a shed pointless if Ragland was just hanging out outside? I mean, not that there's anything stopping the guy from entering and leaving a shed multiple times, but. That's why I think the cigar won't lead us to the shooter, anyway- its location was inside a thing some steps beyond two feet away from the shot, from what I understood. It could've also been a short wait. Or maybe he flicked the cigarette away. It just doesn't seem like it's a super great clue, to me. We might have a much better time just shaking every suspect's clothes down for burnt gunpowder and looking for who might have access to the ridiculously overpowered weapon used.
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Oct 25, 2015 12:08
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You know, I'm curious. To accrue debt from the tailors, Ragland would've had to buy when he was unable to pay, right? So, wouldn't these expensive, exclusive cigars possibly also have generated a similar receipt of debt that we would've stumbled upon? Can you even put expensive cigars on a tab? It'd be nice if the list of clients had provided dates. Then we'd know if Ragland bought them after paying off his debt or if he was a client before then, information which improve the clue we found in the alley. I'm not sure how to follow up from here. I want to visit either the Admiralty at 10 SW or the Count's at 51 SW and see if we can get more info from either of those leads. It feels like the A.M. trail's gone slightly cold at the moment, and going to either the Embassy or Meshkoff's seem like a pretty silly gamble now. And Camp feels like a whole new trail, because we didn't have a particular reason to suspect the guy up until we saw the client list.
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Oct 26, 2015 22:24
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So how do we follow up on confirming the late Allen's suspicions surrounding Ragland? It feels like the only leads we can currently follow are the ones Egan's put forward that lead to everyone else. Would visiting Radford, Jones & Co., Rafferty Paper Mills, or Stephenson Iron Works help at all? They're the only places we've learned of that have anything to do with the wayward Lord.
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Oct 28, 2015 19:54
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I guess let's ask for the relevant look-ups on Ragland and Camp, as well as the Rafferty and Stephenson businesses.
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Oct 28, 2015 21:14
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Thanks. Seems a little odd that the Rafferty Paper Mills and Stevenson Iron Works businesses aren't listed as such, considering how consistent the look-ups had been until now... unless this is implied evidence that the businesses are hollow shells of their former selves, which supports that the stocks we found might in fact be worthless? So I guess the look-up itself counts as a clue here! So I guess we're heading to 56 SW and paying the Lord an unannounced visit? I also don't know what, if anything, we'll find that's useful. But I figure cementing our clues is also an alright endeavor. Edit: Look-up information was given on Ragland, Camp, Rafferty, and Stephenson/Stevenson on the previous page. ElTipejoLoco fucked around with this message at 10:51 on Oct 29, 2015 |
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Oct 29, 2015 08:52
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I feel like this clue point is so hammy and over-the-top that I want it to be a red herring, because it's what I'd do if I were authoring a mystery for a game like this. Not sure what to investigate if we continue, though.
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Oct 31, 2015 06:19
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Hm, yeah, let's chance it I guess. We'd only be trying to get extra credit at this point, anyway, barring some really circuitous game logic. I'll vote to Close the Case unless someone makes a compelling argument for visiting a place.
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Oct 31, 2015 10:24
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I wonder how we were meant to learn about Allen's birthday? Unless maybe the information is just what was provided by his brother when Holmes was elaborating on the initial details of the case. In which case the importance of Allen's birthday would be to tell us about the initial condition and amount of time he's had the suitcase whilst it was intact, perhaps. Maybe we would have also learned that Lord Ragland was present at the time the gift was purchased or received, and therefore learned about it at that time to plan the switch? Trying to follow up on Camp's visits to the Embassy seems like it'd be simple enough if we paid either his domicile or the embassy. I guess it'd be safe to assume it was a relative. It'd be interesting if Ragland had deliberately instructed Camp to make trips to the embassy instead, just to try and lead Courtney's suspicions away from himself whilst he could, but we never found that out. Here's hoping the answers are correct.
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Nov 1, 2015 23:12
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| # ¿ Apr 26, 2024 07:51 |
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I'm a little disappointed that the damage to the briefcase was such a simple thing as it getting scratched on cobblestone. I guess I just got too 'Chekhov's Detail'-oriented about it. Is it implied that Holmes visited those clue points in the order they were listed? In any case, I guess it explains why paying Ragland a visit ended up being such an incredibly hammed up scene- it definitely felt like we went there pointlessly since we had already visited those main 4 already. I feel like a couple of the quiz questions wouldn't get full answers without following up on the Spaniard's Inn and trying to follow up on Camp and the Countess in some way. Unless I missed some detail in the newspaper where the Countess's real name and Camp's fiancee's names were dropped. Looking forward to the next one.
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Nov 3, 2015 09:56
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