The Rehearsed Hour

The Account Rehearsed
Solved the case of The Rehearsed Hour.

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

Usually heard from Doll Verrin (“Ask Doll what she has heard once too often”). 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 Rehearsed Account in Dreskmark Bond-House.
   Finding Alibi Rehearsed: “Dorn's alehouse witnesses give the night back word for word, the same beats in the same order — recited, not remembered, like a verse learned by rote.”
2. Take the Staged Showing in Dreskmark Bond-House.
   Finding Appearance Staged: “Dorn laboured to be seen — table to table, standing rounds he need not, a hired caller marking the hour aloud while he read the alehouse clock to the room.”
3. Take the Cart Tally in Dreskmark Bond-House.
   Lead Alibi Looks Airtight: “Every hour of Dorn's evening is vouched, a dozen mouths to swear it, not a minute unaccounted — the reeve calls so seamless an alibi cleared.”
4. Talk to Doll Verrin in Dreskmark Bond-House and choose “Show Verrin the cart-tally”.
   Finding Goods Gone Early: “A laden cart rolled from the bond-house yard on Dorn's own warrant, quiet and unlamped, well before the hour he was so carefully seen at the alehouse.”

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	Rennick Dorn	Appearance Staged; Goods Gone Early
Tell	Alibi Built In Advance	Alibi Rehearsed
Method	Engineered The Hour	Goods Gone Early

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.

• Bractor At Scene makes a wrong sheet presentable (Culprit: Sim Bractor, Tell: Ordinary Alibi, Method: Chance Theft). “The porter Sim Bractor was about the bond-house that very hour and can give no clean account of where — the reason the watch likes him for the theft.”

Close the case

Stand beside Halvik Storn and present. When the sheet holds, Halvik Storn offers courses; the case closes, and The Account Rehearsed unlocks, once you commit to one. Any course counts; they differ in the morale and marks shown beside each. This run chose Name The Staged Alibi, which also earns The Built Alibi.