The Interrupted Weekend at the Doctor's Salon

## OTHER STAGES

**The Interrupted Weekend at the Doctor's Salon (IX)** is the third stage of Chapter 3 "The Ascent" and the ninth stage of *The Case of the Golden Idol*.

## Plot

Lazarus Herst ran for Prime Minister in the 1792 election under the New Order Party. The party won the most Members of Parliament (36 of 97), but Lazarus feared the possibility that the Loyalist Party and Moderate Party would merge in order to invalidate the New Order Party's plurality and limit the spread of their radical ideology. He ordered James Turner and Alistair Koch, two fellow members of the Brotherhood of Masks, to cause infighting between the Loyalist and Moderate parties and prevent them from merging. To do this, James invited Loyalist leader Leopold Blanchard and Moderate leader Augustus Vallantine to his manor, among other guests, with the intention of murdering Augustus and framing Leopold.

On May 12, 1792, James and Alistair set their plan into motion. The day began with James offering Leopold a glass of sherry spiked with black poppy, causing him to fall asleep in the library. James stole a button from Leopold's shirt, then met with Alistair at the chess-house, where Podrick Hill was also present. James sent Podrick to the library, where he too fell asleep due to the black poppy. He then gave Leopold's button to Alistair, who exited to the salon at noon. Augustus was also present in the salon, as was requested of him by a (likely forged) note from Leopold. Alistair used a Lemurian boomerang on the salon wall to murder Augustus, planted the button on his corpse, and went back to the chess-house. When Leopold woke up and found Augustus' dead body, he quickly woke up Podrick, who called every guest to the salon. Once everybody was present, James and Alistair used the planted button to frame Leopold for the murder, and he was escorted out by Arthur Falkner.

On the same day, Ergin Ptoo went to the tea-house with Gideon Bell. Ergin had spiked the tea with Lemurian lichen, causing Gideon to lose his concentration and perception of time. Ergin directed Gideon's attention to the chess-house, then exited to the salon to steal the seal of his Lemurian clan from the wall. He narrowly avoided being seen by James, who was in the library shortly after Leopold lost consciousness.

## Clues

* club
* boomerang
* seal
* sherry
* button
* Augustus
* Vallatine
* Leopold
* Blanchard
* Gideon
* Bell
* Ergin
* Ptoo
* James
* Turner
* Alistair
* Koch
* Podrick
* Hill
* Billiam
* Spade
* Arthur
* Falkner
* tea-house
* chess-house
* field
* library
* salon
* flowerbeds
* fountain
* drugged
* stole
* killed
* planted
* frame
* provoke

## Thinking panel

### Left panel

* Early in the morning,  James   Turner   drugged   Leopold   Blanchard  in the  library  and  stole  a  button .
* Meanwhile, in the  library ,  Ergin   Ptoo   drugged   Gideon   Bell  and  stole  a Lemurian  seal  from the  salon .
* In the  salon  at around noon,  Alistair   Koch   killed   Augustus   Vallantine  and  planted  a  button  to  frame   Leopold   Blanchard .

### Upper right panel

* Augustus   Vallantine  is the victim.
* The  boomerang  is the murder weapon.
* The  salon  is where he was murdered.
* Body was found by  Leopold   Blanchard .

### Lower right panel

Location of each
suspect when the body was found

## Trivia

* The final position in the chess game between Alistair Koch and James Turner is impossible to reach in a legitimate game of chess. Both sides have both of their bishops on the same colored square; this is only possible if both sides promoted a pawn to a bishop, which is almost always wildly inferior to promoting to a queen. Additionally, the black side has a pawn on the first rank, despite the fact that pawns start on the second rank and can only move forwards until promotion.
	+ This could be interpreted as a cryptic clue, implying that James and Alistair were shuffling their pieces randomly to make it appear that they were playing chess when in reality they were discussing their plan to murder Augustus Vallantine. However, it's more likely that this was simply a blunder on the part of the game's artists, especially since Alistair is implied to have some experience in chess from his military training.