The Case of the Golden Idol – General Guide (Cases, Keywords and Hints)

This guide will provide the location of keywords, hints, and a final answer to each case.

Guide to All Cases

Note: Credit goes to bearsbearsbears

Introduction

Asking for help with a puzzle or mystery game can be difficult, as it’s not fun to have the entire answer spoiled. To this end, in addition to the complete answer and where to find the keywords, I have given out some hints that are vague enough to let you do most of the work. For each chapter, I have the complete answer and a couple of hints that give the game away spoiled out.

For some general tips to help you on your way:

• Every chapter has at least three goals. There is always a task to complete a summary of the case and ID all people. The third goal varies by chapter, and can vary from translating runes to where everyone sat a dinner table.
• Before you attempt the overall summary, it would be prudent to have both the ID and third goal sections completed, as you need to have a good understanding of the case.
• Keywords can be given out in multiple places. For example, Edmund’s name is on just about every document in Case 5. For the sake of ease of reading, I will give one location for each word, but that does not mean that there are not other locations.
• If all else fails, process of elimination. If you can’t figure out how to ID one person, leave them for last.
• Keywords are usually underlined, but some will hop into your inventory when you examine a relevant object.
• As the game continues, they will throw more and more irrelevant words to mislead you.
• Words are categorized by color and a color needs to match a blank spot to answer the question. For example a yellow noun cannot be used to answer a brown name question. As the game continues, some sections will allow for multiple colors of word, making it more difficult to blindly guess.
• The game will tell you if you have words in the correct place for a question. If you make more than two mistakes in a section (summary/ID/third question), the game will tell you [“There are incorrectly filled in slots.”]. If you make two or fewer mistakes, it will also tell you that. Due to this, you can reverse engineer which words are right by swapping them out and seeing if it triggers the more than three mistakes notification

Case 1 – An Abrupt Termination of Contract

Words

• Albert, Cloudsley, Oberon, Geller. From the contract carried by both men.
• Horn, Finger, Ruins, Xenopolis, Thumb, Shadows, Bay. Map carried by the one falling off a cliff.

The third task is to figure out where the murder scene is taking place on the island.

Hints

• The main identifying document specifies how the treasure will be divided.
• Are there any physical landmarks that can be used to figure out the location?
• If someone has a pipe on them and no tobacco, then they likely keep it in their personal belongings.

Case 2 – The Untimely Passing of a Rural Gentleman

Words

• Lead, Poisoning. Blue book on the shelf.
• Ladder: on the wall.
• Spontaneous, Combustion, Sebastian, Cloudsley: Paper on the desk.
• Researching, Dining, Hunting: Diary on the desk.
• Horse: Click on the horse that runs past the window.
• Woodshire, Crowtower, Blackfield: Map on the wall.
• Wound, Head: From the body.

The third task is to identify which of the victim’s three outfits is which.

Hints

• The cause of death is obvious, but the mechanism of injury could be explained in two ways.
• The diary is from 8/22, but the actual date is 8/23, so make sure you’re not being misled.
• The only document that explains which estate is which has only physical landmarks to distinguish them. Are there any landmarks you can see?
• The blood trail leads in from out of the room, so the injury must have been inflicted outside.

Case 3 – The Dramatic Departure of an Outsider

Words

• Pear. On the man at the far left, on the cover of his monkey man book. Alternatively, graffiti in the pub.
• Idol, Spontenaous, Combustion: Man in the middle holding the idol, on a parchment.
• Adam, James: White piece of paper on the yellow door in the background.
• Edmund, David, Gorran, Cloudsley: Man on the right of the screen. First three are on the letter, last is on the newspaper.
• Battley, Cubert: Inside the building, on the household coat of arms.
• Nicholas, Maker: inside the building, white card on table.
• Rose, Willard, Sebastian, Peter, Wright: Family tree carried by the attorney in the buidling.
• Aphorisms, Happy, Upset, Inspired, Scared: Black book by the fireplace in the building.
• House, Research: on the burnt up will in the fireplace.

The third task is to figure out which chunk of the will went to each of the four inheritors.

Hints

• The person burning can only be ID’d by their belongings.
• The Family tree carried by the attorney is a godsend.
• Whose house are we in? Would the crest above the door hold the answer?
• The will was kind enough to provide identifying details about each inheritor. Some of them are relations, some are personality.
• The day of the week is important for a clue, but it’s not obviously stated. What document would have that information?
• One of the characters has been to the British colonies (India, more specifically) and is very heavy handed about it.
• As revealed by the will, one of the characters is flat broke. How would their inventory differ from the other characters?
• Isn’t it weird that there’s a set of twins, but no two people look alike? Maybe the person with the obscured appearance is the other twin.

Case 4 – The Murder at the Little Mermaid

Words

• Window: interact with either window in the crime scene.
• Spear, Henry, Parker: Go through the victim’s window and check the watchman’s inventory.
• Maurice: Check the chest in the victim’s room and then the pocket watch.
• Trapdoor: either ceiling trapdoor on the crime scene.
• Door: Either door in the crime scene.
• Shear: Check the window of the empty room and then the inventory of the vagrant outside.
• Small sword: Guy on the left in the pub.
• John, Annie, Stilleto: The woman in the middle of the gamblers. John is in her speech, Annie on the letter.
• Dagger: Third man in the gambling group.
• Navaja: Inventory of the violinist.
• Evans: First poster on the wall.
• Robert, Redruth: Second poster on the wall.
• Green, Breage, Blair: Chalkboard Tab on the wall.
• Willard, Wright, Ash: Guestbook on pub counter.
• Knife, Oscar, Boyton: On the barkeep.

The third task for this chapter is to assign a name to each of the nine hands of cards played by the gamblers.

Hints

• The victim is a familiar face. In fact, there’s a second familiar face here.
• Everyone here is armed and if they were to commit a murder, they would likely use the weapon in their inventory.
• This is a locked room mystery, and not just the victim’s room. The pub door is latched from the inside.
• We know who the victim is from the last case, so why is there a pocketwatch with another name on it in his room?
• The hand of cards that occurred during the murder would have neither the victim nor the killer participating.
• Going by the woman’s statement, the victim bought her a drink. Therefore, there would be fewer drinks on her tab than someone else’s, right?

Case 5 – The Intoxicating Dinner Party

Words

• Little, Pip, David: Letter carried by the little boy in the foyer.
• Richards, Edmund, Cloudsley, Mary, Peter, Battley: Foyer coat rack, pink coat on the right. First three on the letter, remainder on the Tiger doodle.
• Brian, Boar: Maid on the left in the kitchen.
• Lucia, Ada: Maid on the right in the kitchen.
• Smith, Walker, Baker, Gorran: Letter on kitchen wall.
• Wine, Brandy: Locked nook on kitchen wall with heart lock.
• Mattress, Monkean, Darkhand: Mattress above kitchen.
• Pouch: Outside the upper bedroom by the kitchen.
• Tonic: Safe in the study.
• Rose, Cubert, Lothar: Letters on the study desk.
• George, Brydges, Final, Vanguard, Steward.
• Water, Salad, Lemonade: Serving table behind the men fighting in the dining room.

In addition to summary and ID, you must identify who sat where at the dinner party and which quarter belongs to each servant.

Hints

• You should recognize three of the characters from Case 3.
• Whose house is this? Any document sent to employees is likely from the house’s master.
• None of the servants would have eaten at the dinner party.
• The keys around the house have bright colors and distinctive heads, but it is more useful to focus on the shape of the blade.
• It appears that many, many people have a motive to kill Edmund, but the person murdered was Rose. Was she truly the intended target?
• When you examine the food, it clarifies whether or not it was eaten. One of the salads and its glass of tonic was not touched.
• We learned that Gorran works for Edmund back in Case 3, but he is currently not present. He should have a servant’s quarter.
• Those fancy cigars are in a coat on the coat rack, so they must belong to a guest.
• The top floor servant room has a document to decode a message, but it is not clear which paper it’s referring to. Figuring out whose room it is will give a major hint.
• It is not clear which dish or drink was poisoned. The one hint we have, is since the food was served from carafes and serving plates, that all of a certain dish must be poisoned. Therefore, the poisoned dish/drink must have been ingested by only one person.
• Going by several documents: Miss Richards does not like meat, Edmund cannot take heavy food or alcohol and must drink a tonic before eating, and Peter was sat next to Miss Richards.
• The summary reads ” blank blank wanted blank blank dead, so blank blank poisoned the blank.” This means that the person who had the motive and the person who administered the poison do not have to be the same person.
• Ingested is not the same thing as served. There might be multiple poisoned dishes/drinks and only one was consumed.
• The coded message reads: Use Substance To Remove Target Sincerely Dark Hand Steward.

Case 6 – The Explosive Events in the Forest Cabin

Words

• Bill, Cracker, Hardy, Abe, Little, Billy, Jack, Nails: Inside the bag on the carriage, check the notebook.
• Coffin: examine the injured man inside the house, then the scarecrow.
• Corpse, Shot: Injured man inside the house. Corpse is on letter, shot is from gun.
• Walter, Keene: Newspaper in Lucia Smith’s inventory inside house.
• David, Gorran, Lucia, Smith, Pip, Black, Bestia, Golden, Doubloon, Edmund, Cloudsley:Notice on the wall above Pip inside the house.
• Stabbed: Check the sword in the masked man’s inventory.
• Clubbed: Inside the exploding room, check the man on the left’s inventory.
• Vase: flying shard in the exploding room.
• Air, Decreased, Gold, Seawater, Matter, Heat, Increased, Exploded: In the exploding room chest, in the book held by the man hiding.

The third goal for this case is to translate the runes used by the idol. The answer can be either a verb or a noun.

Hints

• There are three obvious recurring characters and one that looks remarkably different from the last time you saw them.
• One of the criminals is the leader and the other two are his henchmen.
• There are two henchmen present and four henchmen in the book, so two of them must be red herrings.
• Have you ever played Eternal Darkness? That game had a magic system where you would construct spells through magical symbols that meant words, so the healing spell was Absorb Self and the shielding spell was Protect Self. The idol operates on similar principles.
• Coin is not the dog’s name, but it is remarkably close to correct.
• If you check the back of the idol, you can see what it was casting at the time of the explosion.

Case 7 – The Strange Practices of a Secret Society

Words

• David, Gorran: in the bushes to the left, inside the green bag, on the pocket watch.
• Darkhands, Proudbeast, Watersnake: Inside the headquarters, on the red banner.
• Master, Steward, Initiate: Inside the headquarters, blue banner.
• Walter, Keene: Inside HQ, first scroll on the right.
• Lazarus, Herst: Inside HQ, second scroll on the rightst: Inside HQ, second scroll on the right.
• Jeffery, Sinclair: Inside HQ, third scroll on the right.
• Signaled: Lower room in HQ, dialogue of the man on the right.
• Inception, Evaluation, Transition, Admission: Lower room in HQ, scroll around statues neck.
• Challenged, Poison, Drank: Upper room in HQ, top of the three wall posters.
• Squabble, Conflict: Upper room, left of the three wall posters.
• Dispute, Discord: Upper room, right of the three wall posters.
• Tray: Held by the man on the left in the upper room.
• Cup: Center altar in upeer room.
• Tankard:Held by the green masked person in the upper room.
• Sword: Held by red mask in the upper room.
• Scepter: Held by blue mask on right, upper room.

This is a weird one. There is no one to idenitfy. Your goals, in addition to a summary, are to ID the masks and robes, name the rite and each person’s rank and house in the upper room, ID the person in the woods, and ID the ritual and people in the downstairs room.

Hints

• There are two sets of footprints in the woods, so multiple people must be in on the plot.
• If there is a plot, then would be they collude to accomplish? Who would benefit?
• From the lower room, we can conclude that members of this society are branded with their house and rank. Do these symbols look familiar?
• Ranks are formatted as House then rank. For example, Darkhand Steward or Watersnake Initiate.
• The rite in the downstairs room has a series of visual riddles. From left to right, What carries their house on their back?, What eats without a mouth?, and A fish’s home. I have literally no idea what the forth picture is supposed to be, but you can find your answer with only three.
• The scroll specifies that Walter Keene is a Darkhand brother. If he’s being challenged by Jeffery Sinclair, then that gives us half the information to ID the two challengers.
• From a hierarchical perspective, it would be eccentric if lowly initiates were allowed to perform important tasks, and it also be weird if high ranking members were expected to do menial tasks.
• With regards to the upper task, it follows that since the brothers are not standing by house that it isn’t the Ritual of Discord and that since the Grim Reaper is one of the three decorations, it isn’t the Ritual of Conflict.
• Would a new initiate be branded by anyone, or by a member of their new house?

Case 8 – The Crowning Celebration by the Lighthouse

Words

• Gryphon, Rebirth, Flying, Jumped, Seance, Angus, MacBain, Homunclus, Hypnosis, Hypnotized: Inside the green chest on the ship to the left, check both scrolls.
• Seal, With: Check the seal in the first man on the left inventory.
• Oar: The ones in front of the men.
• Idol, Lazarus: Inventory of the fourth man. Examine both the cane and the letter.
• Lighthouse, From, Alistair, Koch, James, Turner, Walter, Keene, Herst, Nicholas, Maker: On the fifth man, the lawyer from Case 3.
• Wound, Head, Cursed, Pushed, Attacked.

Hints

• Three of these characters are recurring. In addition, two of them feature in Case 9, which unlocks at the same time as this case, so you might be better able to ID them with information from that chapter.
• It appears that it is Angus MacBain’s responsibility to repeat miracles. If the crown is being presented, then he must have failed?
• What miracle would the idol be good for?
• Why are they even at a lighthouse?
• The symbols on the idol mean Increased Air.

Case 9 – The Interrupted Weekend at the Doctor’s Saloon

Words

• Tea-house, Chess-House, Croquet Field, Flowerbeds, Library, Salon, Flowerbeds, Fountain: Map on the left wall.
• Frame, Button, Ptoo: Third man from the left’s dialogue.
• Sherry: The spill on the floor in the library.
• Killed: Man with eye patch’s dialogue.
• Provoke: Fifth man, the general.
• Stole: Sixth man, blue wig.
• Club, Seal: Seventh man, the prince.
• Boomerang: Next to corpse on floor.
• Drugged: Poster with plants above body.
• Arthur, Falkner, Leopold, Gideon, Koch, Turner, Ergin, Bell, James, Blanchard, Alistair, Podrick, Spade, Billiam, Planted, Augustus, Hill: On the constable. Most are in his giant testimony book.
• Vallantine: Newspaper by outside fountain.

For simplicity’s sake, I’m going to write down a rough paraphrase of the seven testimonies to make them easier to cross-reference.

• Leopold: Fell asleep after having a drink with James, woke up to see Podrick also asleep, found body and raised alarm.
• Gideon: With Ergin in the morning, went to tea house, saw Alistair come and go from chess house. Highly fixated on chess house.
• Ergin: Sides with Gideon.
• James: Drank with Leopold in the morning, went to chess house and sent Podrick inside to the library, stayed at chess house.
• Alistair: Played chess with Podrick, then Turner.
• Podrick: Chesshouse, sent inside by James, found Leopold, fell asleep, awoken and raised alarm.
• Billiam: Started by Chrysanthemums, saw Gideon/Ergin go towards the back of the house, then went to rose bushes and saw Alistair by the fountain at about noon.

Hints

• The political cartoon at the top of the newspaper by the fountain looks remarkably similar to two of the characters and gives them party identifications.
• The shelf in the salon says it has the 12 Lemurian Seals, but one is clearly missing. When did that happen?
• It’s somewhat obvious that at least one person was drugged. Where would anyone eat or drink around here, and who claims to have been there?
• The constable has seven testimonies. Since, including him, there are nine characters total, whoever he didn’t interview must be the victim.
• A minimum of one of these characters is lying about their whereabouts. A good starting point for unraveling this case is to figure out which statements are evidently true and which statements contradict each other.
• A murder mystery classic is for there to be multiple intersecting schemes complicating what appears to a simple murder. Just because someone’s lying doesn’t mean they’re the murderer
• There are two obvious contradictions. What could explain these?
• Alistair (and James) claims he was at the chess-house the whole time, but both Billiam and Gideon say they saw him at other places.
• Leopold alleges that Ergin was by the library door at one point, but Gideon (and by extension Ergin) never mention Ergin leaving his side.
• Gideon is blinking an awful lot, isn’t he? That might explain some oddities in his testimony
• We know from the last case that James and Alistair are part of the same cult and are in support of Lazarus. Would that be enough of a reason for them to work together?

Case 10 – The Triumph of Order

Words

• We start this chapter with +.-, and 0-9 in our word bank.
• Fashion: Powdered wig and red shirt man.
• Lies, Lust, Art; Second man with glasses.
• Bones, Souls: Third man.
• Beauty, Diligence: On our lawyer friend Maker.
• Merit: Paper in front of the lawyer.
• Mistakes, Francs: On Gorran, standing next to the posters.
• Emotions, Music, Untidiness: On Turner, left side of the upper platform.
• Secrets: On Alistair, on right side of upper patform.
• Fangor, Quinn, Walter, Keene, Lothar, Richards, Years, Josh, Bailey, Horace, Webb, Gideon, Bell: Across the charge books on the upper platforms. Years is specifically in Lothar Richards
• Idol: In Lazarus’s inventory.
• Truth, Moderation: First of the three students.
• Sloth: Second of the three students.
• Indulgence, Literature: Third of the three students.

• To complete our scroll, we need to calculate merit deductions and how much each person lost.
• Everybody get out your scratch paper and calculator, it’s time to do some arithmetic!
• Every violation of a virtue carries a point deduction related to which type of virtue it is. There are four merit books we can use to solve for the strength of each violation.

• Gorran
  • 8 = 10 – 2D

• Maker
  • 4 = 10 – 2B

• Turner
  • 12= 20 – A – D

• Alistair
  • 11= 20 – A – C

From Gorran, we can conclude that D = 1 and from Maker that B= 3. With this, we can use Turner to solve for A = 7. Finally, we use Alistair to prove that C = 2.

From here, we can calculate very person’s merit score

• Quinn = -D -C – A – A =-17
• Keene = -3A – 5C – D= -32
• Richards: -A – A +15= +01
• Bailey = -B – A – A – A – 4D= -28 Webb = -60B – D – 15D + 200 = +04 Bell: -C -10A -5*B – D = -88

Hints

• Do these symbols on the idol look familiar? What did they do last time?
• What documents usually have the date and year on them?

Case 11 – The Slight Delay in the Peaceful March to the King’s Castle

We have a lot of ground to cover. I’m going to start in lower left corner of our world map and head right

Base camp

• Find, Lost: Lawyer Marker.
• Castle, Manor, Islet, Inn, Cabin, Crossroads, Camp: Inside the tent, map on the wall.
• Lazarus, Herst: Bust on cabinet inside tent.
• David, Gorran, Nicholas, Maker, Alistair, Koch, Turner, James, Walter, Keene: Book inside cabinet in tent.
• Green clearing on lower border:
  • Golden, Idol: The idol in the hands of Alistair.
• Green Clearing at Crossroads:
  • Dead, Body: Examine the Corpse.
• Cabin from Case 6:
  • Years: Man with musket in pond.
  • Have: Inside cabin, on bag hanging from cage.
• Lover’s Islet, along river:
  • Mary, Ideal, Wife, Fight, Peter, Battley: Mary’s inventory, inside the book and her letters.
• Kill: Peter’s dialogue.
• The Little Mermaid.
• Kidnap: Ada’s dialogue.
• Blackmail: Oscar’s dialogue.

This level is very dependent on understanding the narrative, so I’m going to do a quick plot synopsis, chapter by chapter.

• Case 1: Albert Cloudsley kills for the golden idol.
• Case 2: Albert’s son Sebastian, who is a member of the Brotherhood(red ruby ring) and the new owner of the idol, dies in a horse riding accident.
• Case 3: Sebastian’s estate is divided by attorney Marker (also an Brotherhood member). The idol is given to fellow Brotherhood member Willard instead of any of his relatives. Rose gets rich, Edmund gets a new manservant David Gorran, and Peter gets nothing. Peter attempts to use his servants to wrest the idol from Willard, but he uses the idol to burn one alive.
• Case 4: Gorran, on Edmund’s orders, hunts down Willard in an inn, kills him, and steals the idol.
• Case 5: Edmund has run afoul the Brotherhood, who use one of his servants, Ada Baker, to attempt to poison him during a dinner party, where Peter and Edmund/Peter’s mutual crush Mary will attend. This fails and accidentally kills Rose instead.
• Case 6: After the attempt on his life, Edmund moves to a secluded cabin. Brotherhood member and thief Walter Keane uses Edmund’s demand for a corpse to gather henchmen and use a scarecrow in a coffin to gain access to the cabin and take back the idol. However, Edmund sets up an explosive trap with the idol to injure Keane and force him to play along with him.
• Case 7: Keane returns to the order without the idol and they set him up to a fatal challenge. However, he and Gorran have colluded to make sure he survives. In addition, Lazarus Herst enters the Brotherhood.
• Case 8: Lazarus, Keane, and high ranking politicians have arrived at a lighthouse to see if Lazarus can become the Gryphon Reborn, an influential position. In order to become this, you must commit a miracle that cannot be repeated. Lazarus uses the idol’s ability to shoot out air to survive a fatal fall, and then exploits the fact that you can’t use the Increase command twice in a row to kill MacBain and ensure that the miracle isn’t repeated. Meanwhile, Keane was blackmailed to side with MacBain, causing a schism between him and Lazarus
• Case 9: Lazarus is the head of the New Order political party, but political rivals Blanchard and Vallantine are in the way. To this end, order members Dr Turner and General Alistair Koch set up a situation where they kill Vallantine and frame Blanchard, giving Lazarus full power.
• Case 10: Lazarus and his cronies have control of the government, use the idol to sap years of life off people for unvirtuous activity, and are planning on taking on the king. Keane has been thrown out of the party and had 32 years of his life sapped away.

Hints

• There are three distinct deaths: morning, late morning, and afternoon. In addition, there is a corpse in the woods, a cannon trap in the manor, and the shooting at the cabin. How can we figure out which is which?
• According to the woman at the laundry pond’s watch, it is currently 12:15 PM.
• At the Lover’s Islet, the white horse running in the background has a distinctive heavy stamp on it. Isn’t that Dr. Turner’s?
• We learned in the last chapter that the idol can make people older, so if someone looks unfamiliar, they might actually be a familiar face.
• According to the brand code from Case 7, the man in the pond is a Darkhand Steward. Does that ring any bells?
• According to Marker, Lazarus went missing before they sent out Alistair/Turner.
• According to message in the tent, someone wants Lazarus to pay for 32 things taken for him. Does that number sound familiar?
• According to Mary’s letter, Edmund is still alive, but his name isn’t in the word bank. He must be someone else under a pseudonym.
• The victim at the cabin is still alive, so that must be the most recent murder.
• No matter where you look, there’s no sign of Dr. Turner… what could that mean?
• It was mentioned in the last chapter that Lazarus was very focused on finding Mary and Peter. What would happen if they met?

Epilogue

Not really a case, just a comprehension check for the whole game. I must confess that it took me until halfway through the final case to notice that Edmund and Lazarus were the same person, like I just assumed that this new guy that multiple characters were extraordinarily loyal to was an entirely new character.