Clever mystery/logic puzzler The Case of the Golden Idol surprised its fans recently when the developers announced the Spider of Lanka DLC. In these three new cases, players travel to the faraway kingdom of Lanka and learn how the mysterious Golden Idol was first passed into the hands of the power-hungry Cloudsley family. All three cases in the Spider of Lanka prequel DLC are quite tricky, with dozens of clues and multiple murders to solve. This guide will provide you with every clue and solution for the first case, “The Overly Enthusiastic Card Game Tournament in the Yellow Lily,” in which Doctor Oberon Geller gets involved in a Lankan card game that soon turns deadly.
Clues
There are 39 clues to find in this chapter. They can be divided into four categories: names, verbs, cards used in the game pajack, and objects found in the room. The clues are:
Bill Carlos Gabriel Geller Hendriks Hubert Kerra Luna Oberon Pandula Price Ruben Senevi Sri Thagson Zubiri [names] chakram dagger ear harpoon katar knife mace money navaja pajack pistol rapier scalpel stiletto sword [objects] archer boar centaur peasant [pajack cards] cheated lost pay treated [verbs]
Puzzle Solutions
Start out by identifying the many different people in the room. The two living men about to exit the front door are each carrying ID on them, so you can identify them as Oberon Geller in the blue jacket and Zubiri Kerra in the hat. (Geller previously showed up in the prologue case of The Case of the Golden Idol, so you may recognize him.)
The two men without opponents seated at their table must have played pajack against Geller and Kerra. Matches are written on the blackboard, and each match featured a person holding a blue rosette against a person with a yellow one. Thus, the bald man is Kerra’s opponent Bill Price, and the long-haired one on his stomach Geller’s opponent Carlos Luna.
Now, pause to identify the pajack cards, as you’ll need this to figure out who is who in the other games. We know that Geller won his first and third games while Luna won the second. Thus, a boar beats a peasant and an archer beats a boar, while a centaur beats an archer. Thus, the order of cards from stronger to weakest is centaur -> archer -> boar -> peasant.
Look at the table on the left. The win pattern is yellow – yellow – blue, which makes the drunk man Ruben Hendriks (blue) and the dead man Gabriel Hubert (yellow). The other table has a win pattern of yellow – blue – blue, so the strongman is Pandula Senevi (yellow) and the man in the hat is Sri Thagson (blue).
Lastly, it’s time to figure out who killed who – and in what order. Look at the box on the top left, which describes the inciting incident. We can guess that Bill Price is the instigator, as he is mentioned as a dangerous and hot-tempered champion who lost to the “unranked” Zubiri. He has a necklace of ears in his pocket, and Zubiri’s ear is bleeding so we can infer what happened: Bill tried to cut off Zubiri’s ear. Thus, the fully completed sentence reads “Bill Price lost a pajack game to Zubiri Kerra. Bill Price thought Zubiri Kerra had cheated, so he tried to take Zubiri Kerra’s ear.”
If Bill started the fight, he must then be the first to die. There is a rapier stuck in his back, so that is the murder weapon, and the only person close enough to have stabbed him is Gabriel Hubert. (This also fits a letter Senevi is holding that describes Gabriel as “insurance” against Bill’s temper.)
Gabriel Hubert died next, and the chakram in his head is the murder weapon. Sri Thagson, the killer, is holding another chakram. Sri Thagon’s head was then clobbered in by a mace held by Pandula Sendevi. Pandula Sendevi has a harpoon in his chest. Since Hendriks was drunk, Zubiri is injured, and Geller was friends with Sendevi, the only person left to be the killer is Carlos Luna. Finally, Oberon Geller took his pistol (which he is still holding) and shot his opponent Carlos Luna.
With that, you have fully solved Case 1 of The Spider of Lanka! In the next case, Geller’s newfound friendship with Zubiri Kerra leads his learning about the mysteries of the lost kingdom of Lemuria, including the Golden Idol. Make sure to check out GameLuster’s other The Case of the Golden Idol and The Spider of Lanka guides to help you solve every tricky case in this thrilling game!
