The Chalked Name

Name Laid Bare
Solved the case of The Chalked Name.

Patron: Halvik Storn, in Dreskmark Market Square. The sheet asks for Culprit, Motive, Method. Each answer must rest on a finding; a lead only points you onward.

Usually heard from Brisa Wend (“Ask Brisa what she cannot set down as ordinary”), or Grethva Brenvordotter (when you walk up), or the Watch Notice in Dreskmark Market Square. You need not wait for it: a case enters your casebook as soon as you hold one of its facts.

Gather the proof

1. Take the Chalk Mark Rubbing in Dreskmark River Docks.
   Finding Ostry Grudge: “Calder Ostry bears a real grudge against the struck porter — loud, free with his fists, and the man who blacked Skalt's eye over a load last winter.”
   Lead Mark Reads As C: “The watch read the chalk-mark for a capital C and went straight to lay hands on Calder Ostry — loudest C on the docks, who once blacked Skalt's eye over a spilled load.”
2. Take the Bond Weight Docket in Dreskmark River Docks.
   Finding Bay Shorted: “The bonded bay in Maron Renn's charge has run light for months — the sealed weight short of the signed, the gap squared over in the keeper's own figures.”
3. Take the Dockwatch Report in Dreskmark River Docks.
   Finding Porter Struck: “The porter Ovin Skalt took a single hard blow to the back of the skull, dealt downward from behind — no graze of a drunken stumble, no fall against a corner.”
4. Talk to Corwin in Dreskmark River Docks and choose “Show Corwin the chalk rubbing”.
   Finding Mark Is Bay Key: “The chalk stroke the fallen porter left is no letter but a porter's tally-sigil — the cipher for the third bonded bay by the water-stair, in Maron Renn's charge.”

Keep the order: a topic only appears once you hold the lead or the item it needs.

The answer

Show the case sheet

Question	Answer	Proved by
Culprit	Maron Renn	Mark Is Bay Key; Bay Shorted
Motive	Cover The Short	Bay Shorted
Method	Struck Down	Porter Struck

The trap

These are true findings that point at the wrong story. Presenting a sheet built on them costs a segment of the day and the clean pass.

• Ostry Grudge makes a wrong sheet presentable (Culprit: Calder Ostry, Motive: Settle A Grudge). “Calder Ostry bears a real grudge against the struck porter — loud, free with his fists, and the man who blacked Skalt's eye over a load last winter.”
• Swale Bay Light makes a wrong sheet presentable (Culprit: Rurik Swale, Motive: Silence His Own Skim). “Rurik Swale, two bays down, runs his charge light as well — quieter than Renn, but skimming bonded stock all the same, with the same reason to fear a porter who caught keepers at it.”
• Skalt Had Drunk makes a wrong sheet presentable (Method: A Drunken Fall). “Ovin Skalt stopped at the Tarnished Coin for a cup of dark not an hour before the late watch — the circumstance the watch leaned on to call it a drunken fall.”

Close the case

Stand beside Halvik Storn and present. When the sheet holds, Halvik Storn offers courses; the case closes, and Name Laid Bare unlocks, once you commit to one. Any course counts; they differ in the morale and marks shown beside each. This run chose Convict.