Case 018: The Stolen Scroll

Celest St. Claire's Notes

Hey,

As I mentioned in my note, I’m sure that my conclusions will match Sullivan’s. That being the case, if you’ve already asked him about these clues, you probably won’t learn anything new here.

If you do choose to use this site, you’ll still need to email Sullivan about the Security Code so he can get inside Dragon Dojo. You’ll also need to email him the case’s Solution once you’ve figured out who the real thief is. 

If you haven’t emailed Sullivan yet, you can visit SleuthKings.com/Case-018 to send him your first email. When you want to address either of the issues above, just include the appropriate underlined word from above in the body of your email.

If you want to see my thoughts on any of the clues in your case file, just click the corresponding button below.

The Japanese Language Basics sheet that was included with Dragon Dojo’s Welcome Letter has been really helpful with translating the Japanese sentence written at the top of the Registration Sheet.

Here’s what I’ve got so far:

新しいドアコード translates to “the new door code.”
パンフレットの translates to “the pamphlet’s,” which has to be referring to the brochure Sullivan marked as Clue 2.

For most of this, I’ve found that the trick is to sound out each of the katakana (Japanese letters) and see what English word they sound like. That won’t be enough to translate most Japanese things, but it works well enough for this sentence.

I took me a while, but I was finally able to finish translating everything. Here’s what each word means:

新しい – New
ドア – Door
コード – Code
パンフレットの – The pamphlet’s
キーワード – Keyword
は- Is
Thank You

There’s no doubt about it – this must be telling us how to arrange the columns of letters all over the brochure marked as Clue 2. Try taking a look at it and see what you can learn.

Clue 1 gave us the keyword that’s supposed to help us put the columns in the correct order, right? We’ll likely need to use the Japanese Language Basics sheet from Dragon Dojo’s Welcome Letter to figure out how to spell the keyword in Japanese.

Once you know the Japanese word, you’ll want to re-order the columns so that the hiragana characters at the top spell it out. Once you do that, you should be able to read whatever message is hidden in the brochure.

Clue 1 said that the keyword we need to use is “thank you,” right? According to the Japanese Language Basics sheet, the word for “thank you” in Japanese is “ありがとうございます.”

After you arrange each of the columns on the brochure so that the top row spells “ありがとうございます,” we get:

Futoshiki: Numbers give letter to read. Use Falling Star, Crowned Bear, Crushing Python, Laughing Dragon, Last Light.”

The Weekly Puzzle that Sullivan found in the locker room at Dragon Dojo is a Futoshiki, isn’t it? In fact, “Falling Star” and the other techniques mentioned on this list also appear in the Futoshiki.

Who would have thought that it would help us figure out the security code?

Remember, when you have figured out the security code, you’ll want to let Sullivan know what it is. If you haven’t sent Sullivan an email about this case yet, you can do so at: www.SleuthKings.com/Case-018. When you email him, be sure to include the phrase “Security Code” in the body of your email so that he knows what you’re talking about.

I think the easiest way to look at this scroll is like a cryptogram: each of the stances and colors represent a letter.

So far, I’ve figured out the first four words. They say, “The dojo cookie helped.”

If you take each of those decoded letters and apply them to the rest of the scroll, they should help you decode a large portion of the message.

Bad news – here’s what the scroll says:

“The dojo cookie heIped me name my new technique. For a reminder”

The rest of the scroll – of course, the important part – is missing. It must still be at Dragon Dojo. I’m sure Sullivan will find it once you’ve given him the security code so that he can get inside.

Once you’ve figured out Dragon Dojo’s security code, you’ll want to let Sullivan know what it is. If you haven’t sent Sullivan an email about this case yet, you can do so at: www.SleuthKings.com/Case-018. When you email him, be sure to include the phrase “Security Code” in the body of your email so that he knows what you’re talking about.

If you need help decoding the second part of the scroll, you’ll want to talk to Sullivan about it after you’ve helped him find it. Just let him know that you’d like his advice on Clue 3, and I’m sure he’ll do what he can to help.

The more I’ve thought about it, the surer I am that the piece of the scroll that’s inside the dojo is going to tell us that we need to arrange the lines of letters into a block.

I’m not sure how many rows and columns will need to be inside of the block yet – the rest of the scroll will probably help with that. Once you’ve helped Sullivan get inside of Dragon Dojo, though, and you’ve decoded the scroll, you’ll want to make a grid according to its specifications and fill the letters in.

It’s hard to say whether the lines of letters will be arranged vertically or horizontally, so I’d recommend writing them in pencil until you know for sure.

Don’t forget – in Japanese, things can be written horizontally or vertically so, if reading the letters from left to right doesn’t make any sense, try reading them from top to bottom, instead.

It took a while, but I finally figured it out. The “block” that we’re supposed to arrange the letters in is 8×10.

Once the box itself is filled out, it’s like I thought – you have to read from the top down, starting with the left column. Here’s what the note says:

“Technique Reminder: Fortune And Numbers Show The Way Forward With Words On The Welcome Letter XX.”

I don’t think we need to pay any attention to the “XX” at the end of the message – I have a feeling those were just meant to fill the last two spaces of the grid.

The good news is that, aside from being delicious, it sounds like the fortune cookie is also useful, too. What you’ll need to figure out is how to use it with Dragon Dojo’s Welcome Letter to find out what the thief’s new technique is called.

Whether or not the technique actually helps you narrow down the suspect list is another question, but I have a feeling it will. Once you’ve found the technique’s name, you’ll want to take a look at the suspect list (the poster with information about the people who traveled to Japan with Travis) and see if anyone stands out.

I’d love to help more, but I actually couldn’t get one of the fortune cookies from Dragon Dojo. Without that, I’m afraid there’s not much else I can do!

When you’ve figured out who the real thief is, you can email Sullivan their name. If you haven’t sent him an email about this case yet, you can visit www.SleuthKings.com/Case-018 to get in touch with him. When you want to tell him who the thief is, be sure to include the word “Solution” in the body of your email so that he knows what you’re referring to.

Also, if you need help figuring out how the fortune cookie and Welcome Letter are supposed to reveal the thief’s technique, you can ask Sullivan, too. Let him know that you’re working on the “solution” and I’m sure he’ll do whatever he can to help you!

If you’re having trouble figuring out where to begin with the Futoshiki, this might help point you in the right direction:

In case you want to know how I figured that out, here’s a breakdown:

The number in the “Laughing Warrior” box (which is directly below the “Dragon Wind” box), must be “4.” We know this because the number in the “Laughing Warrior” box is greater than the number below it in the “Eruption” box. Since the number in the “Falling Star” box is less than the number to its right in the “Phoenix Fire” box, “4” is the only remaining option for “Laughing Warrior.”

Once we’ve got that, we also know that the number in the “Divine Strike” box must be “1,” and the number below it in the “Ringing Bells” box must be “2.”

With that in mind, we also know that the number in the “Crowned Bear” box is “3.”

Because the same number can’t appear twice in the same row or column, we also know that the number in the “Phoenix Fire” box must be “2,” and the number to its left in the “Falling Star” box must be “1.”

Feeling stuck with the Futoshiki? Here’s a picture of what I got:

On a slightly different subject, if you’ve worked through Clues 1 & 2, but you’re still having trouble figuring out the dojo’s security code, click the button below.

Of course, if you’ve figured out the security code, you’ll want to let Sullivan know what it is. If you haven’t sent Sullivan an email about this case yet, you can do so at: www.SleuthKings.com/Case-018. When you email him, be sure to include the phrase “Security Code” in the body of your email so that he knows what you’re talking about.

According to CIue 2, we’re supposed to look at the boxes on the Futoshiki that contain the following techniques:

Falling Star
Crowned Bear
Crushing Python
Laughing Dragon
Last Light

Clue 2 also said that the numbers in each of those boxes are telling us which letter to read, right? I assume that means that the “1” in the “Falling Star” box is telling us to read the first letter of the technique, which is “F.”

If you follow that pattern for each of the techniques Clue 2 mentioned, we get the word “Focus,” which must be Dragon Dojo’s security code.

I’m not going to break into the dojo myself – I’ll leave that fun for Sullivan. You’ll need to let him know that the security code is “Focus” so that he can get inside. If you haven’t sent Sullivan an email about this case yet, you can do so at: www.SleuthKings.com/Case-018. When you email him, be sure to include the phrase “Security Code” in the body of your email so that he knows what you’re talking about.