Adventure Gamers - Forums

About who sat where on the table:

Karlok - 01 June 2023 05:26 AM

Here’s how I did it: 1. Peter is holding a fork and one plate is missing a fork -> that must be his plate. 2. The butler has a shilling -> he put Mary next to Peter. 3. Women don’t smoke cigars (a reasonable assumption, expecially in those days) -> Mary sits on Peter’s left. 4. Everybody except Mary and one other person drinks wine -> that person has to be Edward. So Lothar smokes cigars and the last plate must be Rose’s.

I actually started with Lothar, because he was pegged as the cigar smoker from having a box of cigars in his jacket. Also Edmund had the non-alcoholic beverage and the tonic, so his spot was obvious as well. And I had already deduced the tonic being poisoned, so quickly got Rose’s spot too. And Mary didn’t eat meat, and Peter was sitting next to her to fill in the last spots.
I never made that connection with Peter holding a fork. Thanks for pointing that out!


Because of an oversight / brain fart on my part, I had more difficulty with which servant had which room. And of course the note with the code was the one I initially overlooked, so that added to the difficulty.

NOW the game has me!

Three fantastic cases, with VIII being the easiest of the three and IX being by far the hardest.

Maybe a bit too much back-and-forthing between documents to fill in the thinking panels, but meh. I could take notes instead.

Definitely needed my thinking cap for these chapters. Especially IX.

Veovis - 01 June 2023 03:47 PM

In part VIII I had trouble identifying which of the masters were Alistair Koch and James Turner respectively. I finally took a chance based on their appearance (thought Koch looked like a doctor and Turner like a military man) but got it wrong of course. What clue did I miss?

The victim had a letter from a doctor who is a director of the Seven Seas Company. One of the masters has a stamp for the number VII…

Veovis - 01 June 2023 03:47 PM

But I also had some trouble with this part. I couldn’t for the life of me understand what the game wanted me to put down in the middle sector of the left-most field and was close to using a hint for the first time with this game. I found nothing to suggest Gideon having been drugged by the Lemurian prince, apart from one tea cup being empty and one full. Why didn’t Gideon tell the constable about being drugged? According to his testimony Gideon seems to have been awake up until the murder happened at the very least (he claims to have watched Koch leaving and soon return to the chess-house). Or are we just to assume he was drugged in the morning since he obviously didn’t report that the prince went to the salon to steal the seal (being spotted by a semi-drugged Leopold)?

The pink eyes are an indication of being drugged asleep. One of the other drugs has hyperconcentration and loss of perception of time. Gideon was drugged with this, as noticeable from his rapid blinking. The prince pointed him to the design of the chess-house, and Gideon got so focused on that, he forgot all time, during which the Prince could steal the seal.

I got distracted by the cats here and mis-clicked on the main menu. A “yes/no” pop-up appeared, and I foolishly clicked “yes” without reading. Probably assumed it was “you sure you want to quit?”. Unfortunately it was “you sure you want to delete all progress in the game?” instead.
I accidentally wiped my save game.

I’ve redone the first 6 chapters in the meantime (in record time because I still remember most things).

But the main thing I noticed is how the earlier cases connect far more than I thought. A lot of references to the brotherhood of masks that were overlooked because of a lack of context, and so on.

It now all makes WAY more sense to me in terms of motives, and there are a lot of (previously irrelevant) details that connect things.

That makes this a game that can still benefit from a second playthrough! Impressive!

TimovieMan - 02 June 2023 08:06 PM

NOW the game has me!

Three fantastic cases, with VIII being the easiest of the three and IX being by far the hardest.

Yes, not easy, the middle part took me a long time, but I love playing detective investigating alibis and stuff. I will post my comments on Chapter III later today.

TimovieMan - 03 June 2023 03:57 PM

But the main thing I noticed is how the earlier cases connect far more than I thought. A lot of references to the brotherhood of masks that were overlooked because of a lack of context, and so on.

It now all makes WAY more sense to me in terms of motives, and there are a lot of (previously irrelevant) details that connect things.

I remember I went back to check something in chapter 1 and suddenly Sebastian’s mask and robe made perfect sense. It really is a very well designed game.

Okay guys, let’s finish the main game and discuss the full story!
NB: The Epilogue appears after the credits.

V: I wonder who the lucky target is of Lucia’s love potion. The butler is too old, Little Pip too young, Edward out of her league. That leaves David.

VI: I noticed a black cat in the cut scene with David’s explanation what happened. Could that be Black Bestia…

VII: Totally unimportant question about the blue tags we did not see in the room. I’m guessing the “mirror of souls” would have an eye as its symbol. But what about the “feeder of mouths”, a spoon maybe? I have no idea what the symbol for “speaker to the blind” could be.

VIII: not hard to solve, but storywise…? Walter Keene kills his blackmailer by withholding the necessary info about the red/blue gem. Tricky. If the others search the body they will find the incriminating letter he wrote to his blackmailer. So he has to make sure he gets to the body first. (Stealing McBain’s opium is a nice detail. Keene’s crazy eyes always look like he’s drugged.) But why would Lazarus consent to lending his cane to McBain for his attempt to fly? And wouldn’t the others think that odd? Nobody except Keene knows about the hidden idol. Unless I’m missing something, the only explanation is that Keene has told Lazarus about the blackmail and Lazarus agrees to have McBain killed. But in the cut scene at the end of IX Lazarus calls Keene a traitor. They were big buddies in VII (and VIII as well?), so that’s rather unexpected.

And now I’m going to replay my beloved Chapter 4. I hope to read many interesting comments.

Nico2021 - 04 June 2023 02:25 PM

Ready to play last chapter. I found previous one pretty hard. Also can someone explain why the lemurian prince drugged gideon? Just to have space to steal the seal? I mean if you want to steal a seal there are easier ways than drugging someone.

My guess is indeed for space to steal the seal but ALSO to have an alibi. Gideon will claim that the prince was with him the entire time and couldn’t possibly have stolen the seal…

Veovis - 04 June 2023 02:38 PM

I didn’t understand why the prince wanted to steal the seal or why he chose to go through such trouble/risk to do it. Maybe the Lemurian was upset about Turner having his clan’s seal on display? But how did he imagine getting away with stealing it? Hopefully we get the answers in the next chapter, which I’m just about to start!

I thought that was pretty clear from the letter in the prince’s possession? The seals were stolen by the Seven Seas Company, and stealing the seal from his tribe back would regain their honour.




Just played chapter X. Well, that took a nasty turn…

Finally finished the first 9 cases. Got stuck AGAIN on the 6th case that drove me away last time I played the game — the logic behind the code for the idol just doesn’t click with me for some reason, not to mention a couple of extreme pixel-hunting spots I kept missing. Honestly, it’s my least favourite case so far, along with the 7th — I agree with DCast, it felt like a lot of unnecessary busy work rather than a deduction game.

Also at this point this whole secret society conspiracy is becoming a bit tiresome: everyone’s a member, everyone’s obsessed with the silly rituals, everyone wants to manipulate or kill everyone — yes, I got it, but it’s such an interesting time period to explore more deeply instead of focusing on things which became part of the popular culture years ago. This is where Obra Dinn also showed a masterclass, with its variety of themes and characters that happened to meet on board of one ship.

Then again, I really enjoyed solving the 5th case, especially the dining table part which felt like a proper detective work to me, with many small details thrown in (like the missing fork). For the same reason I also enjoyed the 9th case which I thought was masterfully structured, like a good Agatha Christie story. I want more of those and less of idols and freemasons.

Really like how the cases are interconnected and how one can return to previous cases to be reminded of character’s names/traits/motives or notice something new with the help of newly discovered information. Details like that make you feel like playing an actual story-driven adventure and not just a puzzle game where you move from one level to another. I might need more time to think about the logic behind story/puzzles, but so far the game plays pretty smoothly for me, not counting those two cases I mentioned (I even tried the “hint” option, now that’s a nicely designed feature!).

DCast - 04 June 2023 08:02 PM

Maybe in order to recreate the miracle McBain had the right to ask for same conditions/items that the one who performed it used? In order to potentially uncover foul play (and according to the scroll- McBain was responsible for all the last ones, quite possibly through the same blackmailing means). In this case it would be immediately suspicious if Lazarus would have NOT consented to give his can to McBain to try and repeat the miracle…
I was a but surprised with the “traitor” part as well, but perhaps, Keene now outlived his usefulness and since he knows too much, Lazarus is trying to paint him in a bad light on purpose?

I found your explanation convincing, but I discovered later that the truth was to be found in ONE word in the summary of case VIII: “McBain seized the staff from Lazarus.” 😊 So McBain grabbed the cane from an unsuspecting Lazarus, ran to the lighthouse, locked the door behind him and jumped to his death. Of course Lazarus realized that Keene was responsible (the others didn’t know about the idol yet), which explains why he called him a traitor in the cut scene.

Veovis - 06 June 2023 03:42 AM

Really enjoyed the last chapter. Part X added some fresh challenges. No problem piecing stuff together, although I got Horace Webb’s merit summary wrong by one merit at first, since I figured he should have got -16 merits for having 15 books in his private (secret) library.

I never thought of that, but you’re right.

It struck me that in X poor Gideon was the only person with integrity. He refused to betray his uncle, the King. Imagine being killed for bursting into tears and dying your hair blue! The game has a nice tongue-in-cheek feel to it, but this was kind of poignant.

So I felt stupid for having been too focused on details within the cases themselves and not enough trying to piece together (or rather guess) the bigger picture.

Oh, you should not feel stupid because I never even doubted David Gorran’s statement that Edmund was dead. It seemed quite reasonable to me that David handed the idol and Edmund’s books to Lazarus, just like that. But as soon as I saw the date on the letter to Mary my eyes were opened. It’s a satisfying ending to a game that made me feel smart.

The epilogue was the easiest to piece together and a good way to kind of sum things up.

It also answers your question who made those footsteps below David Gorran’s room in the inn in part IV.

Speaking of part IV, did you recognize someone else in part XI? I won’t post a pic, so as not to spoil anything for people who are still playing, but here’s a link. https://imgur.com/n03rBxx

So what do I think? There are some minor flaws with some story points I think and it’s a bit too easy to deduce stuff by filling in blanks based on the context rather than really using clear facts. On a couple occasions I borderline force-solved parts of cases and afterwards felt that I didn’t really have had the facts to reach the conclusion the game wanted me to reach. But very possibly a second playthrough will give me more “duh”-moments of the major kind that I had towards the end.

I don’t think there’s much point to replaying the game. You can go back now, all the evidence is available, and look for stuff you missed.

Are you going to play the DLC? The second DLC case and the ending of the main game are my favorite ones.