Mystery Manor (Teammate Hunt 2021)

Mystery Manor
Teammate Hunt 2021
Emma
Constable Duck standing outside the titular manor.
Author(s)	Liam Thomas, Ivan Wang, and Rachel Wei
Answer	Click to revealRHO
Statistics
No. solves	103
No. total guesses	205
Links
Puzzle	Link
Solution	Link
Stats	Link

Mystery Manor is an interactive, visual-novel-based puzzle from the Emma round of the 2021 Teammate Hunt, and one of the hunt's signature "Entangled" puzzles. In this case, it's entangled with Click to revealRemember to Hydrate!, and therefore cannot be solved without concurrently solving the other puzzle.

Solve Path

Initially, solvers are tasked with solving Crow's murder in a seemingly locked room. However, there's no way to start making guesses until they've talked to everyone in the game. Since the game rewards solvers with the final answer upon completion, there's not a significant amount of deduction required outside of actually solving the game's mystery. However, the complication comes with the entanglement.

 

As teams explore the manor, they're able to talk to several of the birds in the area (Constable Duck, Wren, Finch, and Jay specifically), and get to know them, their motives, and their supposed alibis. They can also discover a few potential murder weapons scattered around, and take a quick look at the crime scene. However, it should quickly become clear that something is preventing them from fully exploring the house, as two doors with unique keyholes block their way into two rooms.

At this point, solvers are stuck, unless they've noticed the connection between certain actions being taken in Mystery Manor affecting the game in Remember To Hydrate. If they've managed to grow the plant to the level where they can customize it, solvers can change the shape of its leaves to one of the lock shapes from the manor's locked doors. Doing so allows for exploration of these rooms, and finally talking to the last two suspects: Swift and Robin.

At this point, solvers can go back to Constable Duck and try to answer his questions, starting with a location, murder weapon, and culprit (a la Clue). Ultimately, it's not possible to know the answer to any of these questions definitively without making more changes to the plant to discover more of the Manor's secrets. With some experimenting (assisted by the plant-growing guides in one of the manor's Guest Bedroom), solvers should be able to unlock more customization options, including:

• Adding a sticker to the watering can, which digs up the Old Revolver murder weapon in the garden
• Changing the number of petals on the flower, which can open locked cases in the formerly-locked Guest Bedroom and Office.
  • The filing cabinet in the Office provides a business-related motive for Robin, who previously did not have one.
• Changing the berry color from red to blue, which changes the carpet in the hallway to reveal a large bloodstain.

This information along with some of the suspects' accounts is enough to answer all of Constable Duck's questions.

 

• Who killed Crow? --> Robin
• Where was Crow killed? --> Hallway
• What was used to kill Crow? --> Old Revolver

• What object explains the culprit's motive? --> Filing Cabinet
• What was the culprit's motive? --> To Cover Up A Crime

• What evidence rules out the Fireplace Poker as the murder weapon? --> Painting
• What evidence rules out the Hunting Rifle as the murder weapon? --> The Sound

• Where was the murderer when the body was found? --> Master Bedroom
• What was used to create the illusion of the locked room? --? Wardrobe

While the final answer could be determined earlier than the end of the game, it does confirm for solvers that taking the first letters of the killer, location, and weapon gives it to them.

Accolades

Award	Date of Ceremony	Category	Result
Bravo Awards	January 13, 2022	Nuovo Award for Puzzling Innovation	Nominated
Bravo Awards	January 13, 2022	Best Interactive Puzzle	Won