The Detective Society - The Cursed Exhibition - Envelope 3

We begin night three without many leads as to what happened to the Artefact, and what has led to the death of the Archivist, the Curator, and now Eddie Moore. All we know, is that there is an unknown person in a trench-coat lurking about in the eaves. We begin! 

Tonight’s envelope has the standard start here square, a letter from the detective, a kraft paper envelope addressed to Mr. Eddie Moore, an envelope from the University of Greater Wellington, and a manila envelope labeled ‘Do Not Bend’. 

The starter asks for Mr. Moore’s motivation, to explain, eventually, the motive for his own untimely demise. Apparently the envelopes are from Eddie’s apartment, and the police have already cracked his laptop, and we are advised to contact her at our earliest convenience. No files from the computer, only a website link we think Eddie was trying to access. We are cautioned to ensure we have all the info before attempting the website ourselves. Its homepage is a very secret order vibe emblem with interconnected shapes and odd letters. 

We begin with the kraft envelope, addressed to Eddie at the museum. It is from one Scarlet Rob, who asks we WhatsApp her when we have our next clue. We need find the luggage label number of a trunk belonging to Birdie Shepperton, who died before docking in NY. She may have been an antiquities thief. We’re given two photos with numbers and a website. The website contains photos of a list of thefts from the time around Birdie’s travel from England to the U.S. We suspect, given her name, that at least four of the unknown perpetrator thefts can be attributed to her, as symbols of birds were left nearby. In order to identify her trunk number, we must figure out where she departed the UK. THANKFULLY my partner likes maps ;) We identify that some trunks stay on board, others are on and off at each stop. Based on what we were able to identify, her last theft was Oxford, and our options are (in order) Newcastle, Southampton, Liverpool, and Belfast before the crossing to New York. Based on distance, the closest port to her last theft was Southampton, at 65 miles from Oxford. That means that her trunk loaded at Southampton and stayed for the others. The only trunk that does that is 7927. That the ship left in May confirms why none of the thefts on the last page have her ‘signature’ - they were after her boarding the ship. 

A quick text of the luggage number to Scarlet confirms our investigation. She then sends us a list of unclaimed luggage, Birdie being dead at the point and unable to claim it - we need to identify the correct trunk using the ‘Unclaimed Luggage Rules’ on one of the images. But first, DINNER! 

Using the rules in the image, we determine the trunk went to Newcastle after being determined unclaimed,  despite other labels, based on its size, age, and value. Scarlet tells us that the trunk is now likely at an antiques dealer, website provided. We identify the trunk as F-6684, but when we contact the dealer, it is already gone. I’m afraid we’ve hit a dead end, probably from the pasta coma. Or the man in the trench. Will see. 

We open the University of Greater Wellington envelope. There is a cute picture of a cat! Also a letter from the university discussing the death of Professor Carver, as well as the professor’s intranet access. While I am adoring the cat, my partner has found a map! It’s part of a collection of related documents. We note that there are circled numbers in a few places, as well as scattered handwriting. The professor was the one who had originally found the item in New Zealand after its loss, and returned it to Spain, just prior to her own death. The map is part of her documentation of her dig notes, BEDJA (?) are the ones noted. Of interest, some of the shapes of the sites on the map appear to be similar to the shapes on the entry page of the website Eddie was trying to crack. Finally there’s a dig guide, which focuses on her use of radar and then the steps to caring for artefacts. 

Having been traumatized by the whole ‘numbers on the desk’ adventure, we first try to make shapes of the letters in order. No dice, unless you count a very wonky ampersand. Before getting too far ahead of ourselves, having learned, again, we start in on the suggested website before we spiral. Her file is locked with a letter grid in three stages. We are able to in stages break into her account, first using the map and her dig notes to identify a scrambled word, then using the up/down coordinates, then using a spiral - glad she loves her cat, too! The file that we are able to open then shows a fragment of the artefact, which has symbols similar to those on the website - we take a picture, expecting to need to draw this again at some point soon. I need to note at this point that I really enjoyed the feel of the old intranet - Windows 3.x, the do-do do-do sound of the old school modem, even the deep cut to the original Jurassic Park. LOVE. 

However, thinking back, now that we have one piece of the puzzle, as it were, for the artefact decoration, we wonder if we really solved the first envelope entirely. Still, we open the DO NOT BEND envelope, in hopes of a breakthrough. 

In that envelope, we have a ring, a note from probably some type of cemetery keeper along with graveyard information and map, and another file from the museum - a history of the Kristiansen family, apparently victim of the same ‘curse.’ The map reinvigorates my companion, despite pasta coma, and we dig in. We know we are trying to find the correct grave number for Henrik Kristiansen for the graveyard keeper. 

First, we have to figure out the years the four sons of Anders Kristiansen were born, happily we have references, which give us:

• Hans - 1872
• Hjalmar - 1874
• Herman - 1876
• Henrik - 1879

And then we decide we are tired, and this would be better done tomorrow. However, we love the humor in the burial notes. Dark, twisted humor. Our favorite. 

We dig in the next day after delicious pancakes and raspberry sauce. We start documenting the lives of the Kristiansens, as several factors on their burial location, including whether both parents were born in Sweden. From our detectiving, one mother - Candelaria - was born in Sweden, while the other may not have been. We also need to determine if they were considered ‘wealthy’ based on their home location. Their family home is considered wealthy, and they all seem to have lived there. The results of our sleuthing are below:

Name	Birth Year	Swedish Heritage?	Executed by the State	Pet	Wealthy	Died Over 35
Hans	1872	Yes	No		Yes	No
Hjalmar	1874		No		Yes	No
Herman	1876		No		Yes	No
Henrik	1879	Yes	Yes, 1909		No	No
Anders (F)		No	No		Yes	Yes
Candelaria (M1/4)	1841	No	No		Yes	Yes
Tatjana (M2/3)		No	No

We map out the Church graveyard based on Sudoku-style rules, then identify the section of the graveyard, 1891-1910, where they are buried. We then copy the graveyard and bang our heads for ages, before realizing we were looking at the wrong section, as he was buried in the graveyard 27 months after he was killed. We instead need the 1911-1930 section. Tricksy Hobbitses. We identify three potential graves B36-38. We get a cantankerous caretaker to give us pictures of the graves. Each of the graves says something in Swedish that my ancient language class is trying to translate. I use google instead. 

Our options are:

• The bad times are over
• Death to me is belonging
• The world is going grey

Apparently the world is going grey. We dig up that grave, only to find a well preserved piece of fabric with another part of the seal. We do need to go back and find a piece from the first section. We are, however, still stymied by the purchase of the trunk by our unknown stalker, and the inability of the antiques store to provide any more information. Unsure where to turn, we ask for a clue. The only clue is to get in contact with the antiques store. We will try again. 

After a break, including deciding to try messaging Detective Society ourselves with the antiquities email issue, we realize we may have to brute force it. We have two of the pieces. We rotated the options, and found access to the Children of Shakir. We email the detective, who confirms that we do indeed have a CULT! That ends envelope 3. We head into envelope 4!