CTI: Crime Team Investigation

[Kastchey]

I think 1 down is a different kind of pasta.

Spoiler

CREEPY

[close]

[Ian Aloser]

That‘s ingenious !!!!!!!!
Never would have found this one out !!!

[Laura Hunt]

Oh wow, nice one!

So we probably don't need to know 7 anymore, but:

Spoiler

OVEREXERTED?

[close]

[Ian Aloser]

Bravissimo !!!!
That must have been the missing one

[Kastchey]

Nice one Laura! And great thinking with the 12 letter place names, I am a loser.

IF our other guesses are right, 8 would need to start with a D and end with a Y.

Spoiler

DESTROY?

[close]

And if so, might this be the solution?

Spoiler

[close]

[Stupot]

I think 1 down is a different kind of pasta.

Spoiler

CREEPY

[close]

OH FUCK YOU MANDLE! I knew it!!! 

Well done Kastchey for getting that. And good work I am a loser. Destroy fits The clue much better than Justice.

[Mandle]

Updating the thread soonish. Until then please do not post. Thread is closed for a bit.

EDIT: Thread is updated and open again.

[Mandle]

CASE #64

Justice Killer

Week Three

Following the lead provided by Officer Iam Aloser, the next murder victim of Justice Killer is indeed discovered. He was found dead in his own Richmond Hill house.
The victim was a judge who had, at one time many years ago, been publicly accused of sexual assault against a court security guard.
He was found tied to a chair and beaten to death with his own gavel.
While forensic evidence is still under analysis and other leads are being followed, with no positive results so far, the NYPD receives another letter from the killer:

Hello,

Pity you couldn't make it in time to save the judge. I even gave you noobs a decent chance at a head-start this time.

You could have saved him within the first two days after I sent my last letter. But, "sadly", failed.

There aren't that many locations on the map that consist of 12 letters. I expected a better challenge, and had even planned ahead in the event that you met it.

But, no... "sigh".

Unfortunately, the current solution to my crossword puzzle in the newspaper, hidden in the "Yesterday's Solution" section as I expected, is not completely correct.

You got close, but are wrong with two answers.

I am quite pleased, however, that you appreciate me as "Ingenious". That I am! But I'm also, much more, a shadowed and lurking threat.

I shall continue on my killing spree of the unjust regardless. Although I shall take a bit of a rest to let you get even more donut crumbs on my crossword.

And I'll admit that my gavel-swinging hand is a bit tired.

The next kill will go ahead, after my nap, though, whether the puzzle is solved or not.

But good luck in figuring out who the victim was or why they were chosen if you have to look at all the murders in the entire city.

The clock is ticking.

Yours Sincerely,
Justice Killer.

This is the current state of the crossword puzzle that Officer Kastchey developed in the police database:

[Ian Aloser]

From what i read in the recent letter,
INGENIOUS must be wrong.
I believe that it must be

Spoiler

INSIDIOUS

[close]

This would mean that OVEREXERTED
would not fit, but it surely must be
a word beginning with OVER or OUT
A pity that

Spoiler

OVERINDULGED

[close]

doesn’t fit, but i think this is the
right direction

[Mandle]

GAME STRUCTURE:

Breaking the fourth wall here just a bit to tell you players that, yes, there was a chance to save the judge before his murder if anyone had come up with the location "Richmond Hill" as a place to investigate before a certain amount of time had passed.

As "I am a loser" figured out, there were a very limited amount of possible locations with 12 letters that could have been the next target. If only 50% of the puzzle was done it probably would have been an easy matter of deduction to figure out which that it might have been. This was not figured out in time this time around, but I'm not making fun of the players here. Just pointing out strategies that might be useful later on.

The police chief will send out units if the reason seems even semi-plausible.

This is why the police chief shouted at you all. Hehehe! (and even included the word "creepy" in his rant in a moment that I was hoping was going to be the murder mystery trope where the detective says "Wait? What did you just say?" after hearing an unconnected comment from another character that caused a leap of logic. Hmmm, maybe later).

The time had passed by a very long time when the location was suggested though, so Justice Killer went ahead with the kill.

I did have a separate time-line in mind already in the event that the judge was saved, but not in a cheap "Oh, you got there in time but he died anyway." kind of way. The story would have branched in an impactful way. You would have gotten a step ahead of Justice Killer. There may be further chances to get ahead of the killer's schedule in the future similar to this, so best to look out for them.

This post is not to admonish you for being lazy or anything. I'm sure everyone expected this game to run on an infinite time-loop where you got to take your time to safely figure out each puzzle before the game moved on to the next scene.

But that is not the case.  The game runs on a real-time schedule but that schedule is a bit fluid to take into account different time-zones and schedules of the players.

For example: In the judge kill I gave an extra 24 hours or so longer than I had planned to allow a buffer for the kinds of time-zone/schedule issues mentioned above.

The good news in all this is that you can solve the Justice Killer's clues faster than he had planned and potentially save his targeted victims.

The bad news is that you are currently a little behind.

So, hurry up, but at your own pace.

Hehehe...

[Ian Aloser]

Wow Mandle,
This is taking great dimensions
I didn’t get the the “creepy” clue
since i never heard of creepypasta
until now, but you get to learn something
new every day.....
You have really set up something special !!
EDIT:
And : This game has deserved more participants !

[Mandle]

Wow Mandle,
This is taking great dimensions
I didn’t get the the “creepy” clue
since i never heard of creepypasta
until now, but you get to learn something
new every day.....
You have really set up something special !!

Cheers! Yeah, not every player might be able to get every reference to every clue. That's why I set the game up as a police department trying to solve the crimes together.

It's a team effort. The team must put everyone's knowledge together to try to catch the killer.

And the real risk is always looming that the killer could get away with everything and not even be caught in the end.

Hopefully not, though.

[heltenjon]

While this isn't exactly a Black Story anymore, I agree it's entertaining in its own right. Especially for those of us with another native language than English, crossword puzzles and the likes of it are very hard, so I appreciate the team setup.

In my earlier case, "This serial killer had a pattern", my plan was to update the case with more victims if and when the players got stuck as well, but it turned out they
solved it before that became necessary.

So, going inside the fourth wall again:
This time the letter has to contain the clues. It could be the first letter of every line that we need for something, or perhaps the words in quotation marks: "sadly", "sigh", "yesterday's solution" and "ingenious".

The phrase "my gavel-swinging hand is a bit tired" may point in the direction mentioned earlier in the thread that the killer may be a retired judge. Or not.

We also have to look at the victimology. The killer is not restricted to lawyers, so perhaps he(?)'s taking out someone from each branch of the judicial system that have failed in his or her opinion.

[Mandle]

Especially for those of us with another native language than English, crossword puzzles and the likes of it are very hard, so I appreciate the team setup.

Yup, you could be the light of brilliance that shines upon a different kind of clue.

[Ian Aloser]

Dear colleagues,

our boss put me in detention due to the fact
that we didn't solve the crossword in time.
I have updated 9 across with what I think
might now be correct.
I refer to the Justice Killer's recent letter
(Unfortunately, he didn't leave his phone number,
else I would have called him instead of bothering you) :

I am quite pleased, however, that you appreciate me as "Ingenious".
That I am! But I'm also, much more, a shadowed and lurking threat.

So here's the updated crossword with 7 down still missing:

[JackPutter]

7 down could be

Spoiler

"Opinionated"

[close]

It's the only adjective I can think of that will fit, given the other solutions.

[Laura Hunt]

7 down could be

Spoiler

"Opinionated"

[close]

It's the only adjective I can think of that will fit, given the other solutions.

Another word that could fit in 7:

Spoiler

OUTRIVALLED

[close]

<fourth wall break>

My problem with this is that personally I think a puzzle should have only one solution, otherwise part of solving it is just random guesswork. If the combination

Spoiler

INGENUOUS / OVEREXERTED

[close]

fits both the clues and the letters/gaps, then it's a valid solution. We only know it's not because the killer told us explicitely "well yeah, but it's not the solution I was thinking of", which in my opinion is unfair. We can work with logic but we can't read minds, so I think that if we come up with these types of valid-but-not-the-real solutions, the killer should be fair and not count that against our remaining time.

</fourth wall break>

[Ian Aloser]

I agree with you, Laura
Both words make sense in the context
However, why should the killer be fair ? :-)

[Mandle]

However, why should the killer be fair ? :-)

This!

You are not just dealing with a game that should have logical solutions all the time that are not flawed in any way. You are dealing with Justice Killer and whatever their concept of fair-play is.

[Ian Aloser]

Now I am totally baffled :-(
Edit: So opinionated would be my closest guess