#case files

[nora3alk]

Mystery night 📔📌

[shadoedseptmbr]

OKAY let's hit the ground running with the final chapter of this little interlude ME3 story

A Strange Sort of Friend in the End- in which Kaidan has a conversation with someone he thought he knew and the story finds an end.

[fateroulette]

Ptolemaios

1x:

[nutntubear]

My tabletop RPG Case Files is out now!

It's a day like any other. People are living their lives, with stories as full and complete as your own. There are questions unanswered, mysteries to be solved-- and that's where you come in.

My mystery storytelling RPG Case Files is available now on itch! Gather up some friends, make your investigators, and get to solving the mysteries that no one else can solve. If you don't find the answers, who will?

[tarnishedinquirer]

Case: The Roundtable Hold

I was half expecting Melina to come with me, but I arrived here alone.

Can't say it made the best impression. Whole place had an air about it. Like gathering at the mansion of a dying relative, one whose fortune was lost decades ago and only the house remains. Not enough servants to keep a place this big from going to shit, and none of your cousins would ever stoop so low as to picking up a broom and trying to straighten things up.

Hrm. That hypothetical got a little too specific to be anything but a memory.

Central hub

The centerpiece was a massive Grace on the titular table. Instead of the piles of bark that I've gotten used to, the base was a bunch of weapons, though they still seemed to be sprouting roots. On closer inspection, it was all one solid hunk of metal. Even the "roots" were cast.

A replica of some historical event, perhaps?

The main area was a large circular chamber with statues and a fireplace. Along each wall were alcoves containing real weapons, probably long past the point of repair. Brought to mind the alcoves in that catacomb, like whoever did this was symbolically burying war itself. Maybe they thought the death of war was the same thing as peace.

I'll do all the profiles later, so here's just an overview of my interactions.

Gideon Ofnir seems to be the de facto leader of the Roundtable Hold. Must be important, since the voice mentioned him while I was dead. He offered only the most cursory of greetings before making sure that I knew my place. Sure, I'll play ball. You can be king trash of garbage mountain if you want.

Brother Corhyn is an itinerant monk. Seems friendly enough, but a bit too blind to his faith. I mean, he literally wars a blindfold, but there's gotta be some holes in that thing. Offered to teach me Incantations, but if I ever had faith, I'd lost it long ago.

Diallos is a dandy in the worst way. Handsome, noble, and completely useless. That armor of his had better have a hell of an enchantment on it, since it looks about as flimsy as filigree. He asked me if I'd seen his lost servant, but I guess the thought of looking for her himself never entered his pretty little head.

West Wing

Two wings extended off the central room. The west wing was mostly inaccessible to me, with two chambers blocked off. Guarding one of the doors was an...individual who didn't offer their name and I'm not even gonna guess at their gender. Their armor looked to be made out of hardened pitch, with bones embedded in it.

They didn't speak a word, just silently judged me for even being here. I decided not to bother them and left.

East Wing

This one had more activity. First thing to note was a monstrous blacksmith, hammering away at a pile of weapons. Introduced himself as Hewg. I asked him about the chains and he said flat-out that he's a prisoner, and I guess that's something we both understand. He that he said he's fine being a prisoner as long as he doesn't have to think about, "The terror of her." Now that's interesting. Wonder who he's talking about?

The side room had been converted into a sumptuous boudoir. Its sole occupant seated expectantly on a soft bed. She introduced herself to me as Fia, and I recognized the name immediately. Between my death and revival, the voice had singled her out as important somehow. She invited me to sit beside her and, well...I'd better move on.

A staircase led to a storeroom below, but I couldn't progress any further. One of those gargoyle statues barred my way, and I still don't have a key.

At least they gave me a clue. The one in the tomb had two empty slots, this one has just one. The other imp statue has a small, daggerlike object stuck in its head. Made entirely of the same stone as the statue, but clearly a distinct object. At least now I know what I'm looking for. I'll keep an eye out for any "sword keys."

The last area is a small balcony overlooking a grand entrance hall. I'm sure there's a way down there, but couldn't see one from here.

I'm calling this one a case file because there's too much mystery to do otherwise, even if I'm not sure what it adds up to yet. Too many closed doors here, and I've gotta find a way to open them.

Questions:

Why did the voice single out Fia?

Who is Hewg afraid of?

What's the skull knight's deal?

Where is Diallos's servant, Lanya?

Where IS this place, anyway?

[mulderscreek]

A Child Suspended In Time Challenge

Your challenge is to write about Mulder, Scully, and Doggett finding a child or children who have been experimented on by the Consortium in a way that has temporarily slowed their aging, resulting in the child being years older than their appearance would suggest that they are. Whether or not the child or children wear faces that are familiar is up to you. 

Please submit your story or the link to it to nurseryfiles@mulderscreek.com, post here on our submissions Tumblr, tag @mulderscreek, or send me a message with your fic on Tumblr to reblog.

[best-type-moon-couple]

Hello everyone following this blog!

Sorry for not updating you all sooner, there were things in my personal life that are keeping me from fully starting the tournament right now (including some preparation I still need to finish) and I feel terrible for not letting you all know the situation of this tournament.

However, as compensation for making you wait, I will now announce our competition during this tournament!

Meet the 32 couples that I chose from your submissions:

1. Gilgamesh x Enkidu (Fate)

2. Nero Claudius x Hakuno Kishinami (Fate/Extra)

3. Shiki Ryougi x Mikiya Kokutou (Kara no Kyoukai)

4. Medea x Souichirou Kuzuki (Fate/Stay Night)

5. Kirei Kotomine x Claudia Hortensia (Fate/Stay Night)

6. Akiha Tohno x Kohaku (Tsukihime)

7. Sakamoto Ryouma x Oryou (Fate)

8. Arthur Pendragon x Ayaka Sajyou (Fate/Prototype)

9. Tamamo-no-Mae x Hakuno Kishinami (Fate/Extra)

10. Yu Mei-ren x Xiang Yu (Fate)

11. Leonardo da Vinci x Romani Archaman (Fate/Grand Order)

12. Sion Eltnam Atlasia x Riesbyfe Stridberg (Melty Blood)

13. Hakuno Kishinami x BB (Fate/Extra CCC)

14. Ozymandias x Neferati (Fate)

15. Saber x Miyamoto Iori (Fate/Samurai Remnant)

16. Rama x Sita (Fate)

17. Artemis x Orion (Fate)

18. Brynhildr x Sigurd (Fate)

19. Ritsuka Fujimaru x Mash Kyrielight (Fate/Grand Order)

20. Iskander x Waver Velvet/Lord El-Melloi II (Fate/Zero and Case Files)

21. Rin Tohsaka x Artoria Pendragon (Fate/Stay Night)

22. Kirei Kotomine x Gilgamesh (Fate/Stay Night)

23. Shinji Matou x Shirou Emiya (Fate/Stay Night)

24. Sieg x Astolfo (Fate/Apocrypha)

25. Gilgamesh x Hakuno Kishinami (Fate/Extra CCC)

26. Shirou Emiya x Sakura Matou (Fate/Stay Night)

27. Ayaka Sajyou x Richard the Lionheart (Fate/Strange Fake)

28. Kadoc Zemlupus x Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova (Fate/Grand Order)

29. Solomon x Queen of Sheba (Fate)

30. Canaan x Maria Oosawa (Canaan)

31. Mash Kyrielight x Morgan (Fate/Grand Order)

32. Ritsuka Fujimaru x Jeanne d’Arc Alter (Fate/Grand Order)

I’m sorry if your pick didn’t make it in, I unfortunately couldn’t choose all of them with the amount there were and some pairs had to be cut for reasons.

I can’t say when the tournament will be ready to start, but I’ll give a heads-up the day before.

Finally, I leave you all with the current tournament layout right now (any complaints about the background color will be directed at my sister who helped set this up):

That’s all for now. Currently the plan is to start this sometime soon, but I’ll let you know if this changes. Just keep your eyes out for any updates!

[zmeyel]

Since we know from Daybit's backstory that Americans do study in the Clocktower for real (Faldeus being a spy doesn't count), I expect that one day Sanda will have Waver deal with someone whose magecraft is based on creationism.

Maybe under the logic of "if the world is only 6000 years old, by proportion my macguffin has tons of mystery" or "someone's been robbing museums of dinosaur fossils to turn them into dragon bones."

[madwheelerz]

The Case of Jane Eleven “El” Hopper-Byers

The first case in this collection is the case of the lovely Jane Eleven “El” Hopper-Byers. As a product of Hawkins National Laboratory, the implication is that El is very much not real. In what way you might ask? She escaped from Mike’s mind. In this case we assume that the mental hospital Pennhurst is representative of Mike’s mind.

Lucas claims that El escaped from there. The boys also proceed to argue over family in Pennhurst which seems to have implications on Victor Creel and him being located there, but that’s for later.

Dustin before he leaves looks at Mike talking to El and calls it mental before leaving.

She’s also likened to Michael Myers.

Mike gives El a new name and shelters her. El is also given the same clothes that Mike wears in episode one to wander the house with. She also doesn’t resist speaking to Mike like she did with Benny.

Mike’s first meeting with El is very interesting. They stare at each other for a bit and the boys end up taking her home.

When Mike and El are in frame together they seem to be associated with the number twenty-two, which is twice of eleven. Both are individually associated with the number eleven, but Mike is also associated with another numbers.

Mike Wheeler = 11

Mike calls El for 353 days. We only hear about that day in particular and 3 + 5 + 3 is 11. Mike’s flight is 623 which again is 6 + 2 + 3 = 11. Mike is associated with the number eleven, but it’s not purely because of El. When the two are in frame together the number 11 is doubled so that it becomes 22.

Mike is convinced that the El he sees in season two has to be from his mind for some reason. He truly does not believe she’s there, which is interesting because he witnessed a similar situation with other characters. He may have watched her be taken away, but it’s not much different from watching Will’s body get dragged out of the upside-down and immediately believing without a doubt that he was alive.

With El, however, it’s different for some reason. He knows she has powers and has his suspicions, but he’s still doubtful until the very end that she could be alive.

Mike claims that El was born special and it’s extremely reflective of Terry Ives and even Dr. Brenner. He also says that he might have been the first to realize which is a major flag in this case.

He doesn’t have justification for knowing the specifics of how HNL operates and instead resorts to saying, ‘trust me’.

El regardless of where she is constantly on time when it comes to saving Mike. She shows up on time to catch him as he falls of the quarry, despite there being no implication that she was anywhere near the situation. She shows up right on time to protect them at the Byers’ house and she gets up soon enough to throw the flayed! Billy out and away from Mike.

It’s also interesting to note that while El is interested in finding her biological mother, she’s not interested in her father at all nor does her mama offer any memories of her father. Also, when Mike shows off Yoda to El the scene before was of the lab observing the materials from the upside-down. Later Mike says that El is similar to Yoda.

It’s notable that Mike introduces El to Yoda before knowing she has powers and then proceeds to describe the basic form of El’s power.

{The lab scene transitioning into Mike showing El Yoda & saying more like Yoda at the hospital}

Mike also identifies El as a mage, which at this point isn’t a possible DnD class. Afterwards he claims that she is someone and no one.

Max only asks the important questions.

[hattoriandkudo]

I’ve been thinking of typing up little history lessons with translations from the history detective conan books. I have the whole first Japanese history series and a couple of other ones. (I’m not super interested in translating the manga parts of them at the moment, that would be a lot more work to find time for and require full page scans.) Would any of y’all be interested in reading that kind of thing?

[redwebpod]

Red Web tweeted:

We've briefly mentioned it before, but TOMORROW at 10:00 AM CT, we launch Red Web: Case Files, our brand new video show! We'll have a fun new episode every Thursday over the next 8 weeks. Subscribe now at youtube.com/redwebpod!

Here's the intro as a sneak peek!

Who's excited?

[archivyrep]

Archives in...Carmen Sandiego?

Now, this was something I was not expecting. In the final season of Carmen Sandiego, Julia "Jules" Argent, who has retired from her job as an archaeology professor at an unnamed university, returns to a shadowy agency known as ACME or the Agency to Capture and Monitor Evildoers. Anyway, the Chief gives Jules a mission of finding Carmen Sandiego's mother. We see the record room of the headquarters in a few episodes, like the final episode, "The Dark Red Caper," which is shown above. She is going through stacks of paper and undoubtedly archival records along with it! Unfortunately, we don't see the records that closely, so they aren't that detailed, but I still enjoyed that part.

Reprinted from my Wading Through the Cultural Stacks WordPress blog. Originally published on Jan. 23, 2021.

This isn't the only episode in this season of Carmen Sandiego which features the record room. In the episode before this, "The Viennese Waltz Caper," the Chief gives Jules a research project she says would be of interest to her: finding out about Carmen's mother! Jules, who probably has a crush on Carmen and feels that Carmen is a force of good, happily agrees to this. We later see her going through more records, with her project interrupted as she goes on a trip to Austria, in an attempt to find Carmen. What follows is a heist for VILE that is successful because Carmen has been brainwashed to join them. Oh no!

This is not the first time records appeared in the series, although, admittedly, not in an archival context. In the previous season, Carmen searched for her both in Buenos Aires, looking through a safety deposit box, and there are still loose ends, unfortunately. And in a season before that, she looks through VILE's case files, which have ended up in the ocean. But that's about it, when it comes to archivy themes. I'll end this episode with a screenshot of Jules in the ACME record room in the episode "The Viennese Waltz Caper":

The final episode of the series, "The Dark Red Caper," Carmen is handed a file which Jules put together, with this information, with Shadowsan giving her a choice of where to go forward with her life. She opens the file and meets her mom at the end of the episode. What a victory for archives, records, and everything in-between!

© 2022 Burkely Hermann. All rights reserved.

[aorose-official]

Was doing one of those unsolved case files games and I didn’t solve it the way they wanted me to but I solved it nonetheless

[innovatorbunny]

case files version of flat had all his essences sucked out of him

[millanicts4]

CASE STITCH

Available on patreon Blender 3.0

Funcional evee & cycles

DOWNLOAD

[tarnishedinquirer]

Case: Limgrave Tunnels

During my visit to Roundtable Hold, I asked Master Hewg about upgrading my weapons. I was short on smithing stones, but what I did have was a map of Limgrave. I figured they wouldn't mark caves, since they're natural features. They wouldn't mark catacombs, since they're meant to be secret. But if there's any mining tunnels, they'd probably be the only "dungeons" marked on the map.

And there it was, just south of the Gatefront Ruins, on the big lake.

On the way there I was accosted by crustaceans, but I also found some strange flowers growing in the water and shade. Not sure who this "St. Trina" is or if she even exists, but she definitely has the good stuff. If I find a recipe, I could use these to put my enemies to sleep.

Might profile her if I find any actual evidence she exists.

Now a key skill in this line of work is situational awareness, which is how I noticed this ledge down below the elevator. Being immortal can make you a little reckless, so I figured I'd just jump down there and see what I can find.

All I found was a dead long-neck with some runes on him. Useful, but not especially impressive. At the same time, it got me questioning how he got here. I checked, and there were a series of ledges below that should take me down safely. He wasn't stuck here, could've come down at any time. That is, unless there's a reason not to go any lower in the cave.

Better off on judgement until I go lower.

Found some miners still working, but they were none too happy to see me. They look like the long-necks I've seen (mostly dead), but as I learned when I tried to use my estoc on them, their skin is hard as rock. Lacking anything that could smash through armor like that, I was forced to rely entirely on spells. Fortunate for me then that my Glintblade summons had no such difficulty. In fact, they seem more vulnerable to magic than most, which is something to keep in mind.

While I was exploring, I got accosted by giant rats. Following them back to the source, all I found was another dead long-neck clutching a smithing stone. The rats were feasting on the corpse before I interrupted, so I have to assume it was relatively fresh, and probably a fair bit easier on the teeth than the stony miners. Who had killed it?

Heading deeper in, I found another elevator, and realized that just like the previous one, there was a series of ledges leading around the side. Probably how they dug down here to begin with, or a safety feature in case the elevator gets stuck.

On the lowest level, I found a wooden store shelter, with one last dead long-neck, being eaten by a starving dog. This one held a glintstone scrap. The same stuff that tips my staff, but clearly of much lower quality. Could probably throw it and do some damage, but that's it. Could he have been trying to defend himself, maybe from the miners?

I'd explored the whole cave, but things felt unfinished. Typically, a place like this has some big guy in charge, and I hadn't found the boss yet. Time to get searching.

So much for situational awareness. I'd completely missed it during my previous climb down, a whole 'nother tunnel, midway between elevator stops. Took me a few tries to get to it, but here I found the largest collection of miners, and also the largest miners. These guys were a cut above the rest and used some pretty dangerous weapons too. No match for my spells, but the difference was noteworthy.

Now, before I went any further, I took a moment to go over what I'd uncovered. The way the miners would just ignore me sometimes, like they were in their own little world. The strange alteration of their skin, like they'd been fused with the rock. The long-necks tucked away in tiny, out of the way rooms, trying to defend themselves or flee.

It all reminded me of something. Maybe a story I read, or a place I'd visited, or maybe even a past life. A tunnel full of miners, where demons took advantage of their avarice to turn them into mindless servants, abandoning their very humanity to take on the traits of a dragon. This wasn't the same thing, but it was similar enough.

Maybe the final chamber would hold answers.

One more elevator down, and I found an answer.

One of those giants—or trolls, I guess—crouched down, staring at a massive, glittering rock. He seemed less enthralled than some, as he immediately stood up and began to attack.

I'd gotten a tip from Kalé about "Stonedigger Trolls" and how they have an old wound on their heads. Might've been a useful tip, if I was a warrior or an archer. Instead, I just turned to my trusty spell, the only spell I know, and made short work of the monster. It dropped a medallion to enhance roar attacks, that said giants like this were originally enemies of the Erdtree.

Before I left I took a moment to really look at the glittering rock. It seemed metallic and run through with flecks of gold that glittered like stars. I felt a gravitational shift staring at it, and was forced to look away. I think I can figure out what happened from here.

Conclusion: This rock is what mutated the miners and troll. The fact it didn't affect dogs and rats tells me the mutation is as much of the mind as it is the body. Those who come into its thrall are changed, made into stone servants enslaved to dig out more and more of the rock. Only a troll took up residence here, and didn't take to kindly to the other thralls.

A bunch of long-necks came in here and it didn't go well for them. Revising a previous comment, I don't think they were fighting the miners. They were sitting too placidly, and only the ones sitting down carried rocks. They were meditating, but didn't survive the transformation. Only one of them escaped, but whatever was out in the lake was too scary, so he just sat between a rock and a hard place before he too perished.

So, that's a wrap. Time for lingering questions:

What about the lake is so scary?

What about the glittering stone is so enthralling?

At any rate, I got enough upgrade materials for a while. Maybe it's time to do something about my limited spell repertoire.