Case 204

Case 204: Monster Madness

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 Laptop Password. You’ll also need to email him the case’s Solution once you’ve figured out the scientist’s identity.

If you haven’t emailed Sullivan yet, you can visit SleuthKings.com/Case-204 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.

Good news! Sully and I have made some progress with trying to figure out what we’re supposed to do here.

The first step is to replace the elements in the formulas with their atomic numbers from the periodic table. Once everything is replaced with numbers, then you’ll want to add or subtract them as indicated. The resulting numbers are new atomic numbers that you’ll then want to find in the periodic table.

I’m not sure if you’ll want the element’s full name or just the abbreviation, so I’d probably write down both. Either way, I’m pretty sure all that really matters will be a single letter from each element. The trick is figuring out which letter actually matters. I wonder if something on the ad can give us a hint about that.

Regardless, I’m pretty sure the formulas are already in the correct order, so you shouldn’t need to worry about rearranging anything. Once you’ve found the correct letters, they should spell out whatever it is we’re looking for.

No worries! Sully and I just figured this one out ourselves.

I think it’s easiest to explain how we did it with an example.

The first formula is Sodium + Germarium. When you replace those elements with their atomic numbers, you get 11 + 32, which is 43. According to the periodic table, the element with a periodic number of 43 is Technetium (Tc for short).

After a little trial and error, we figured out that we want to use the abbreviations instead of the full names. Thanks to the note on the ad that reads “Anyone not in first place will be ignored,” we also realized that we only need to look at the first letter in each abbreviation.

When you repeat these steps for the other formulas, they spell out the words “Truth Serum.”

As random as it seems, that’s actually one of the ingredients mentioned several times in the serum list that Sullivan found. I’m pretty sure that means the serum whose name serves as the laptop’s password likely has Truth Serum in it. Now, we just need to figure out the other two ingredients.

Remember, once you’ve figured out the laptop’s password, you’ll need to let Sullivan know so that we can use it to see what we can find. When you want to send him the password, include the words laptop password in the body of your email so he knows what you’re talking about. If you haven’t emailed him yet, you can do so at SleuthKings.com/Case-204.

I’m actually having a lot of trouble with this one, too. So far, I’ve only managed to figure out that Drug E is Cocaine.

The more I learn about whatever is in the drug, the more upset I am that I was forced to take it. I’m just glad that you and Sullivan helped me get the antidote.

Anyway, the only thing we can do for now is put our heads together and keep trying to figure out what Drug F is.

This is a tough one, right? Let’s take a look at what we know to see if we can break things down a little more.

“Drug C is straight below Drug D.” Since the Test Drug is the only substance directly below something else, we know that Drug C is the Test Drug and Drug D is alcohol.

“Drug E is higher than B, and further right than C.” Because Drug D (Alcohol) is the only drug on the top row, that means Drug E must be on the second row. Because we also know it’s further right that than Drug C (which is the Test Drug), that means Drug E must be Cocaine.

“Drugs A and B are on the same shelf.” I missed this several times, but it’s important. The only shelf with two unidentified substances is the third shelf. That means Drugs A and B must be Sugar and Thallium.

That leaves only a single unidentified substance left: LSD. That means Drug F must be LSD.

Sure enough, LSD is one of the ingredients mentioned several times in the serum list that Sullivan found. I’m pretty sure that means the serum whose name serves as the laptop password likely has LSD in it. Now, we just need to figure out the other two ingredients.

I’ve made some pretty good progress with this one! Here are the numbers I’ve figured out so far:

Unfortunately, arranging the numbers is only the beginning. Once we figure out the rest, our next step will be to determine what the letters they’re pointing us to are spelling.

The good news is that you likely won’t need to use a letter from every word. Instead, you can use the nearby definitions to order the letters correctly. I’m pretty sure you’ll just want to arrange them in the same order as the definitions are arranged.

That’s OK! I finally finished putting all of the numbers in the correct places. Here’s where they each belong:

Now that we’ve got that, you just have to remember that the numbers are telling you which letter to look at in that box’s word. Once you have the letters, you can arrange them in the same order as the definitions.

For example, “Data” is the first definition given, which means you need to start by looking at the box with the word “Data.” It has the number 1 in it, which means you’ll want to look at the first letter in “Data,” which is “D.”

When you run through the rest of the definitions like that, the letters spell out the words “Devil’s Breath.”

Oh no – I’ve heard of that. Devil’s Breath is a terrifying drug! It temporarily strips whoever is exposed to it of their free will. This just keeps getting worse and worse! This scientist had better hope the police find them before I do.

Putting that aside for the time being, Devil’s Breath is one of the ingredients in the serum list that Sullivan found. I think that means the serum whose name serves as the laptop’s password likely has Devil’s Breath in it. Once we know what the other two ingredients are, we should be able to use them to narrow down the serum list and find the password.

Try as I might, I’m pretty sure the only way we’re going to find the serum’s name is to identify which ingredients are in it. To do that, I think you’ll want to solve Clues 1-3, first.

Once you’ve found all three ingredients, the name of the serum with all three in it should be the laptop’s password.

Let’s take a closer look at everything we’ve learned from Clues 1-3.

Clue 1 used the first letter of several elements’ abbreviations to spell two words.

Drug F in Clue 2 is another of the ingredients that we’re looking for.

To solve Clue 3, we had to put the correct numbers into each box, right? Those numbers then told us which letter in each box’s word to look at. Finally, the nearby list of definitions helped us put the letters in the correct order and spelled out two words.

Once you’ve found all three ingredients, you should be able to eliminate all but one of the serums from the list. The remaining name should be the laptop’s password that we’re looking for.

Once you’ve figured out the password, be sure to send it to Sullivan so that we can access the laptop. When you want to send him the password, include the words laptop password in the body of your email so he knows what you’re talking about. If you haven’t emailed him yet, you can do so at SleuthKings.com/Case-204.

Once you send Sully the password, we’ll let you know what we find!

We’re counting on you!