The "Black Stories" crime riddles thread

Started by Kumpel, Mon 13/03/2017 23:07:23

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CaptainD

Use nib of ballpoint pen to dig out Gold Key.


...


(You're going to tell me that's too thick too, aren't you?! :-D)
 

Mandle

#1721
Case #48
Paragraph #1: The Pointing Finger
You, a freelance but well-known sleuth, arrived at the scene of the crime well ahead of the police. Monitoring their radio bands on your scanner has often paid off in the past. The corpse of the old man lies splayed over the impressive mahogany desk of his private study. His glazed eyes are open and his face is fixed in a mask of fear. His left hand is frozen in rigor mortis reaching towards the spot where an intricate wooden box was lying upon the desk until you took it. His right arm is stretched out in the other direction and the hand seems to be pointing at something.

Currently your laser-pointer is bound to the dead man's finger with a length of flexible wire spring you removed from your notepad. The laser-pointer is switched on. It projects a red dot on the far wall which contains a bookcase. The red dot lies exactly in the middle of the spine of a thick black book.

The book has no title on its spine. Instead, it has only designs similar to the ones on the wooden box, which also seem to be embossed gold. At the center of the pattern was the image of an unusual gold key, seemingly embossed in sharp relief so as to appear very real.

Upon further inspection, the thick black "book" is just a fake book spine built solidly into the bookcase! In fact, it seems all the "books" in this bookcase are fakes! The entire bookcase seems a farce designed to hide this one important "book".

Looking closer at the golden key in the book's spine, you noticed it didn't look like a key meant to open any kind of lock you've ever seen. The bottom of the key was a set of four stubby horizontal tongs of slightly different lengths, two on each side. The middle of the key's shaft seemed to have a fine seam running around it. The top of the key was a circle embossed with the number "7". The more you looked at the key, the realer it seemed.

When you tried to take the key, your fingers could find no purchase on it, but it did seem to move around slightly in its setting as you fumbled with it. It WAS a real gold key, embedded in the fake book spine! It was embedded too neatly for your fingers to extract, but...

Just now you have dug the gold key out from its snug setting with the sharp tip of your fine-point pen and it falls into your waiting hand!

The police sirens have cut off right outside the house as several units screech in, followed quickly by the sound of opening car doors!!!

The windows and study are now awash with the flashing blue lights of the police cars right outside!!!

The unlocked back door you came in through is your only escape option.

You have:

Loose Pages. ~
A loose collection of the black card-paper cover, backing, and pages that were once your notepad. They fell apart when you removed the spiraling wire that held them together. Nothing of current importance is written on the pages.

Your Pen. ~
It's a black ballpoint pen. It has a button at the top you click to extend/retract the ballpoint.

Your Keys. ~
On the key-ring jingle your apartment key, your car key, and a few more unimportant or forgotten keys. Also hanging from the key-ring was a small novelty laser-pointer you bought to play with your cat. You took off the laser-pointer.

Your Wallet. ~
It contains just the usual stuff. Nothing useful for this paragraph.

A Wooden Box. ~
It's a wooden box about big enough to contain a softball. It has many intricate designs inlaid in what appears to be gold, and which you cannot spend the precious time on, before the police arrive, to figure out.

A Gold Key. ~
It doesn't look like a key meant to open any kind of lock you've ever seen. The bottom of the key is a set of four stubby horizontal tongs of slightly different lengths, two on each side. The middle of the key's shaft seems to have a fine seam running around it. The top of the key is a circle embossed with the number "7".

On Pointing Finger:

Your Laser-Pointer. ~
It's a small novelty laser-pointer which was hanging from your key ring. You bought it to play with your cat. It's a thin silver cylinder about 3 centimeters long. It has an on/off toggle button on one end and the laser beam comes out the other end. It is currently bound to the pointing finger of the dead man with the length of flexible wire spring from your notepad. The laser-pointer is currently turned on.

Wire Spring. ~
It's the length of flexible wire spring you removed from your notepad and used to bind your laser-pointer to the pointing finger of the dead man.


PROGRESS

Look at wooden box. ~ It's a wooden box about big enough to contain a softball. It has many intricate designs inlaid in what appears to be gold, and which you cannot spend the precious time on, before the police arrive, to figure out.

Look at direction the right arm seems to be pointing. ~ You peer along the line of sight from the right hand, but cannot tell exactly what it is pointing at. This study is a jumble of stuff.

Look in the direction that the man's eyes are facing. ~ The dead man's eyes are staring in about the same direction as his pointing finger. There must be something important over there, but you can't tell exactly where or what.

Take box. ~ You grab the box. You have passed the point of no return by disturbing the crime scene. Now you must leave before the cops get here or you're in even deeper shit than just by being here, but you feel that first solving the mystery of the pointing finger is vital. Speaking of cops, you can now hear sirens in the distance but growing closer.

Is there anything written in my notepad? ~ You look at your notepad. It is a basic model with a black card-paper cover and backing. These and the pages in-between are held together by a spiraling wire at the top as is common with most notepads. Nothing of current importance is written in the notepad.

Shake the box. ~ There is something heavy and metalic that thumps around inside the wooden box.

Did the man live alone? ~ Yes, he was a rich old miser and a bitter loner. More about him in paragraph #2. No time for thinking about his history right now.

Examine pen. ~ It's a black ballpoint pen. It has a button at the top you click to extend/retract the ballpoint.

Examine keys. ~ On the key-ring jingle your apartment key, your car key, and a few more unimportant or forgotten keys. Also hanging from the key-ring is a small novelty laser-pointer you bought to play with your cat.

Use the laser pointer to point in the direction the hand is pointing. ~ You take the laser-pointer off from the keyring. You line up the beam with the direction the finger is pointing and turn on the laser-pointer. A small red dot appears in the darkness over at the room's edge, but it's too far away in the darkness to see exactly what the red dot is on. Also, you estimate that the police sirens are now only a few blocks away!!!

Pull wire from spine of notepad and use it to bind the laser pointer to the finger. Then follow the beam to its target. ~ In a moment of ad-lib genius that rivals MacGyver you carefully bind the laser-pointer to the finger, frozen in unnaturally powerful rigor mortis, using the flexible wire spring you took from the notepad. You walk over to the red dot on a far bookshelf and find that it is exactly in the middle of a thick, black book. The book has no title on its spine. Instead, it has only designs similar to the ones on the wooden box, which also seem to be embossed gold. At the center of the pattern is the image of an unusual gold key, seemingly embossed in sharp relief so as to appear very real. The police sirens are now almost certainly just down the block! This block!!!

Take book. ~ What the...?! The thick black "book" is just a fake book spine built solidly into the bookcase! In fact, it seems all the "books" in this bookcase are fakes! The entire bookcase seems a farce designed to hide this one important "book". You'll have to think quick! You can't bring yourself to give up and leave just yet, not when you feel so close to solving the mystery of the pointing finger, but flashing blue lights are starting to show in the windows!

Examine key in book spine. ~ You look closer at the golden key in the book's spine. It doesn't look like a key meant to open any kind of lock you've ever seen. The bottom of the key is a set of four stubby horizontal tongs of slightly different lengths, two on each side. The middle of the key's shaft seems to have a fine seam running around it. The top of the key is a circle embossed with the number "7". The more you look at the key, the realer it seems.

Take key. ~ Your fingers can find no purchase on the key, but it does seem to move around slightly in its setting as you fumble with it. It IS a real gold key, embedded in the fake book spine! But embedded too neatly for your fingers to extract. The windows and study are now awash with the flashing blue lights of the approaching police cars!!!

Use your own Keys to dig out Gold Key. ~ All of your keys are too thick to fit in the snug setting of the gold key.

Use nib of ballpoint pen to dig out Gold Key. ~ You click your pen to bring out its fine-point nib and use that to dig the gold key out from the spine of the fake book. Just as the key falls into your waiting hand you hear the first of the police cars screech to a halt outside the house, and the sound of opening car doors... The unlocked back door you came in through is your only escape option.


NON-PROGRESS

Open wooden box. ~ You have no idea how to, and no time for trial-and-error.

Check for wounds on the body. ~ He appears unwounded, but no time for a detailed search.

Check for any identification on the body. ~ You already know the man's identity. It's not something you need to worry about right now in Paragraph #1.

Examine study. ~ It's an old, rich man's study jumbled full of treasures and junk. Which is which is not obvious. There are no further hotspots for now.

Examine desk. ~ A huge mahogany desk, probably worth more than your car, but no time to rifle through it. The police will be here any minute!

Examine left hand ~ Nothing special except for what's mentioned in the story.

Examine right hand ~ Nothing special except for what's mentioned in the story.

Draw designs on box in Notepad ~ That would take too long. No time!

Use pen to draw a line from the guy's right hand to see more specifically where it points. ~ It would still be too far from the edge of the desk to whatever he was pointing at to narrow it down enough.

What is in my wallet? ~ Just the usual stuff. Nothing useful for this paragraph.

Am I supposed to guess what the finger could be pointing to? ~ No.

Open the man's right hand/ Move the man's right hand/ Use pen to carefully lift the man's right hand. ~ You're too worried these would destroy your chances over ever uncovering this clue. Also: Not needed.

Describe the body. What is the man wearing? ~ He is dead and wearing rich man clothes. Everything important about the body is mentioned above in the story.

Do you see anything out of place or unusual for a study? ~ The place is a jumble of too much stuff to look at everything in a short time, but nothing catches your eye as glaringly out of place.

What time is it? ~ Night-time.

Is the window open? ~ No.

Examine "corner" where the right hand is pointing at. ~ Too much jumble, too little time.

Listen to radio scanner again. ~ The radio scanner is built into your car, which is parked around the block.

Draw the shape of the body in notebook - does it look like a letter? ~ You doubt it, and no time for sketching. The cops are drawing closer. Tick-tock.

Mandle

#1722
Updated above.

CaptainD ownin' it!!! (nod)

Cassiebsg

Turn off Laser-pointer.
Take Laser-pointer.
Take wire.
Exit through  back door.
There are those who believe that life here began out there...

Mandle

#1724
Case #48
Paragraph #2: The Wooden Box

You grab the potentially damning evidence of the laser-pointer and wire from August Kilmurray's finger in a flash, being sure to hopelessly disturb the orientation of the pointing finger, and book it towards your escape route. You hear the first thuds and splintering of wood when the police start to batter down the front door as you quietly slip out the back one. You jump in your car you parked around the block and drive at a sedate, almost elderly, pace back to your third floor walk-up apartment, all the while your heart racing four beats a second.
Once safely inside, you grab a beer from the fridge and flop onto the sofa, placing both beer and box on the coffee table in front of you.
Your cat, Sasha, strolls in, complaining about her empty tummy, but then locks eyes on the wooden box, hisses with hackles raised, and darts away to one of her hiding places.
Eyebrows raised, you take off your jacket and throw it, and most of its pockets' contents, somewhere over your shoulder. You'll just let your maid (you) deal with it at some future point.
The one thing you saved from your pockets was the gold key that you went through so much trouble to obtain.
You think back to what you already know about Mr. Kilmurray as you take the first welcome swig from your beer:

August Kilmurray is famous in this smallish town of Downward Dog for having risen suddenly from his poor backwoods roots to the position of power-mongering multi-millionaire within the span of a decade.
He held his corrupt dominion over the town for decades to come, until he finally became a bitter old recluse hiding out in his mansion, and jumping at his own shadow whenever rarely seen around Dog in the plain light of day.


When you heard over your car's radio scanner that a call had been placed to the police reporting screams at his mansion in the dead of night how could you resist racing over there and checking it out?
The box and the key were all he cared about in his last moments, as evidenced by his final repose.
You are a sleuth by habit and trade (as well as a few artistic hobbies) and now it seems perhaps you could have the truth about this infamous figure right here, trapped inside a wooden box, but almost within your grasp.

You have:

A Wooden Box. ~
It's a wooden box about big enough to contain a softball. It has many intricate designs inlaid in what appears to be gold. You never had the time to examine it carefully while at Kilmurray's mansion, except for when you shook it and heard something heavy and metallic thumping around inside. Now that you have time to calmly examine the box, you see that each side of the cubical box has some kind of glyph embossed in gold in the middle, surrounded by swirls of intricate and beautiful gold designs. You have no idea what each glyph could mean, but all six are distinct and different. It is sitting on the coffee table in front of you. Currently the gold key is inserted in a discrete keyhole you found in a corner of the box. After turning the key one full circle, and hearing a click, a previously unseen button popped up next to the keyhole with a sharp "SNICK". When you pushed the button you heard a substantial "CLICK". The button did not come back up. Turning the key a full circle again produced the same click, and the button popped back out. After a search on the internet you have discovered what all the glyphs mean:
                                                 Top Glyph: God
                                                 Bottom Glyph: The Devil
                                                 Front Glyph: Fire
                                                 Back Glyph: Water
                                                 Left Glyph: Male
                                                 Right Glyph: Female


A Gold Key. ~
It doesn't look like a key meant to open any kind of lock you've ever seen. The bottom of the key is a set of four stubby horizontal tongs of slightly different lengths, two on each side. The middle of the key's shaft seems to have a fine seam running around it. The top of the key is a circle embossed with the number "7". The key is currently inserted in a discrete keyhole in one of the box's corners.

A Beer. ~
A freshly opened bottle of Wudbeiser beer. It is sitting on the coffee table in front of you. You have had 3 swigs of the beer.

Internet Access. ~
Your tablet lies on the table next to the box and beer.

A Tiny Roll Of Paper. ~
This tiny paper you found inside the gold key reads:
                                                    As surely as The Mississippi flows non-stop,
                                                    As surely as Mount Vesuvius blows its top,
                                                    As sure as the arrow shot by man,
                                                    As sure as the cross borne by woman,
                                                    God above us is never wrong,
                                                    Yet the sinister one below us still grows strong.



PROGRESS

Examine the box. ~ Now that you have time to calmly examine the box, you see that each side of the cubical box has some kind of glyph embossed in gold in the middle, surrounded by swirls of intricate and beautiful gold designs. You have no idea what each glyph could mean, but all six are distinct and different.

Use key on box, if there's a passing key hole... ~ After turning the box over and over in your hands you do finally find a discrete keyhole in one of the box's corners. You insert the key, turn it a full circle, and hear a distinct click. A previously unseen button suddenly pops up out of the woodwork next to the keyhole with a sharp "SNICK".

Try to move/rotate the parts of the key to see if they move around. ~ You find that the top and bottom halves of the key are able to smoothly unscrew along the fine seam in the middle of the shaft. After unscrewing the key you find a tiny roll of paper hidden inside the hollow interior of the key. You remove the paper, unroll it and read it:
"As surely as The Mississippi flows non-stop,
As surely as Mount Vesuvius blows its top,
As sure as the arrow shot by man,
As sure as the cross borne by woman,
God above us is never wrong,
Yet the sinister one below us still grows strong."

You rescrew the halves of the key back together as there is nothing else inside.


Take sip of beer. ~ Ahhhhhh, that hits the spot!

Push the button. ~ You push the button back in and hear a substantial "CLICK". The button does not come back out.

Describe the glyphs. ~ The glyphs are abstract symbols embossed in gold and set in circles in the center of each of the box's six sides. You have no idea what they mean.

Try to push a glyph. ~ Nothing happens. It seems the glyphs are not buttons you can press.

Take another sip of beer. ~ Mmmmmmmmmm...

Feed the cat ~ You go to the kitchen and pour some dry cat food into Sasha's bowl. She comes out of hiding, lured by the sound, and starts to happily crunch away at the pellets in the bowl.

Experiment to see if cat is afraid of box ~ While Sasha is still eating you stealthily place the wooden box behind her and wait for her to finish. She turns casually around and starts to walk away, but then hers eyes lock onto the box, and she jumps and flips about four feet into the air, lands on her four feet, scampers frantically in place on the tiled floor for an instant, before gaining traction and shooting off to another of her hiding places. It seems confirmed that she is indeed scared of the box. It seems unlikely she mistook it for a cucumber. You return to the sofa, chuckling, and place the box back onto the coffee table.

Search the internet for information about the glyphs ~ After a bit of internet sleuthing you find a site with a list of ancient Arabic glyphs resembling the ones on the box. Scanning down the list, you manage to find all six! It's arbitrary, but the current orientation of the box should suffice for your purposes of remembering what the glyphs represent:
Top Glyph: God
Bottom Glyph: The Devil
Front Glyph: Fire
Back Glyph: Water
Left Glyph: Male
Right Glyph: Female


Try turning the key again ~ Again, after turning the key a full circle, you hear a distinct click, and again the button pops up out of the woodwork next to the keyhole with a sharp "SNICK".

After inserting the key does pressing/moving the glyphs do anything? ~ No. Pressing them or trying to move the glyphs does nothing.


NON-PROGRESS

Look to see of anything on the key matches the designs on the box. ~ Nothing that you notice.

Search the internet for information about the box. ~ You find nothing on the net about this particular box. Perhaps it's a custom, one-of-a-kind job?

Look for the following glyphs: ~ None of the glyphs really look like anything on your list. This approach leads nowhere most likely.
Spoiler

> A wavy line
> A triangle with something above it
> A straight line
> A cross / plus sign
> An up arrow
> A down arrow

Also... inc case I'm not on the right track, look for the following glyphs:

> White top half, black bottom half
> Black top half, white bottom half
[close]
Search internet for the "poem" ~ No matches found.

Which side is the keyhole and button on? ~ They are on the front-facing side, the one with the fire glyph, in the bottom-right corner, but you doubt this placement is significant. It seems fairly arbitrary, almost like an afterthought, and not as elegantly balanced as the rest of the designs on the box.



Mandle

#1725
Looky here at Cassie remembering to clean up the evidence before leaving!

Well done! Things could have gotten complicated otherwise ;)

EDIT:

By the way, this story doesn't go on forever. I've already planned it out in a three-act structure, with each act being a "paragraph"...

I guess what I wish to impart is that the game is already written in stone and so please don't get frustrated when you attempt "table top RPG player to DM" kind of actions and they get delegated to the NON-PROGRESS list as unimportant...

This is nothing personal. It's just that you tried something outside of the scope of the game, and I'm trying to make the boundaries of said scope as clear as I can without giving too much away.

It's actually a really interesting lesson for me in game design and when I let people down in this regard I hope I can recognize it and take note for the future...

(All this being said, you're not on a time limit at the moment like in the last "paragraph", thanks to Cassie, so if you want to try some more laid-back stuff in your apartment that's cool. Such actions may or may not (probably not) advance the progress of the story, but feel at home, because you are...)

Cassiebsg

#1726
Examine the box.
Use key on box, if there's a passing key hole...

PS - Thought it was a good idea to take any evidence with us... (laugh) Still, I'm expecting the cops to knock on the door at some point (since it's unlikely we did not leave fingerprints all over the place... (roll) ).
There are those who believe that life here began out there...

Kitty Trouble

Try to move/rotate the parts of the key to see if they move around.
Look to see of anything on the key matches the designs on the box.

Mandle

#1728
Updated above.

Quote from: Cassiebsg on Mon 17/07/2017 18:16:09
PS - Thought it was a good idea to take any evidence with us... (laugh)

The pacing of this act would have been quite different if you had not taken the laser-pointer (not so much the wire) with you when you left.

I was planning to leave the replies open overnight while I slept and if anyone had mentioned to take the stuff with them before escaping I would have accepted it. But you did it straight away so I moved on to next act (paragraph).

Riaise

Take sip of beer. 8-)
Push the button. And hope nothing explodes. (laugh)

Kumpel

#1730
Six glyphs, six poem lines, one button.

I am pretty sure we have to figure out a combination and push the button afterwards (which was activated by a 7-key)


Describe the glyphs.
Try to push a glyph.

And

Take another sip ;)


Mandle


Riaise

Search the internet for cat videos information about the box.

Mandle


CaptainD

Quote from: Mandle on Mon 17/07/2017 17:42:03
Take sip of beer. ~ Ahhhhhh, that hits the spot!

As an aside... I have to ask you this.  Many years ago, when I had a Commodore 16, the very first text adventure game I ever played came on a cartridge for the C16 and it was called "William's Berg Adventure".  The only thing I really remember about it is that if you bought a meal, it would say "That hit the spot!".  So I'm asking.... did you ever play this game?

Er... back to the game in hand though...

Look for the following glyphs:

> A wavy line
> A triangle with something above it
> A straight line
> A cross / plus sign
> An up arrow
> A down arrow

Also... inc case I'm not on the right track, look for the following glyphs:

> White top half, black bottom half
> Black top half, white bottom half

 

Mandle

Updated above.

Quote from: CaptainD on Tue 18/07/2017 13:51:53
As an aside... I have to ask you this.  Many years ago, when I had a Commodore 16, the very first text adventure game I ever played came on a cartridge for the C16 and it was called "William's Berg Adventure".  The only thing I really remember about it is that if you bought a meal, it would say "That hit the spot!".  So I'm asking.... did you ever play this game?

I don't think so, no. I never had a C16, only C64...

Snarky

Since you so kindly invited Mitteneers to participate (it's raining cats and dogs in Iceland today)...

> Feed the cat
> Search the internet for information about the glyphs (maybe you can take a photo of them and do an image search?).
> Search internet for the "poem"
> Try turning the key again
> Experiment to see if cat is afraid of box

Mandle

Updated above.

SWEET! We got Mitteneers in da house, guys! Hope you have some fun with this while rained out!

Cassiebsg

Which side is the keyhole and button on? (roll)
There are those who believe that life here began out there...

Kitty Trouble

After inserting the key does pressing/moving the glyphs do anything? If so I'd try to activate them in the order back, front, left, right, top, bottom.
If I'm still on the right track, I'd try pressing the button afterwards.

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