A Missing Item at Cedarwood Hall
A Thanksgiving gathering at a prestigious family estate is disrupted when an heirloom carving knife is not found in its expected location. The investigator must enter the unfamiliar house and determine the sequence of events and movements that led to its displacement.
Initial Crime Scene
The scent of old wood and stale pipe tobacco hangs thick in the air of the drawing room. From the hallway, the faint, rhythmic sound of a mechanical clock ticking is audible. Your eyes adjust to the flickering gaslight, first catching the deep, wine-colored stains on the plush carpet, then the gleam of a polished silver candelabra on the mantel, and finally the heavy, dark velvet curtains that swallow the light at the room's far end.
Crime Scene Environment
The space is illuminated by the warm, steady glow of gas lamps, creating a lighting profile of amber pools surrounded by deep, soft shadow. The humidity is low, the air dry and carrying the dust of old plaster and the faint, cloying scent of beeswax polish. The acoustic density is sparse; sounds are either muffled by thick carpets and drapes or are sharp, isolated clicks—like a spoon against porcelain or the snap of a pocket watch.
Investigation Constraints
Early 20th-century American domestic setting (c. 1930s). Tools include manual typewriters, rotary telephones, hand-cranked record players, coal-fired stoves, iceboxes, mechanical clocks, and brass locks. Communication is via posted letters, party-line telephones, and handwritten notes. No electricity for lighting; gas lamps and candelabras. Forensic traces are captured in soot from fireplaces, dust on velvet upholstery, water stains on linens, and the patina of polished silver.
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