The St. Jude's Affair
An independent investigator is called to St. Jude's College following a fatal incident during a scheduled fire drill. The death of a senior professor in a dormitory corridor has disrupted the institutional routine, prompting a review of the college's internal records, personnel schedules, and physical environment.
Initial Crime Scene
The scent of old paper and binding glue hangs thick in the air of the upper stacks. Your footsteps echo on the dusty floorboards as a distant, muffled clock ticks from below. Before you, a large, leather-bound ledger lies open on a polished oak desk, its pages filled with handwritten entries. A pen on a chain rests beside it, and high, grimy windows let in slanted light that catches floating dust motes.
Crime Scene Environment
The sandbox is characterized by diffuse, low-angle light from high windows and interior lamps, creating pockets of shadow. The air is cool and carries a consistent, dry humidity, indicative of older, heated stone buildings. Ambient sound is defined by the persistent, pedantic ticking of mechanical clocks, the muffled echoes in stairwells, and the hushed quality of wool and tweed fabric moving through space.
Investigation Constraints
Early 1980s British academic setting. Technologies include: rotary telephones, carbon-copy paperwork, manual typewriters, physical sign-in/out ledgers, mechanical clock systems, analog CCTV with magnetic tape reels (limited coverage), handwritten personal diaries, and typed internal memoranda. No digital or networked systems exist.
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