Dragonator

Certainly this should be a week-long celebration? Best to keep on the good side of the law, or at least keep the law on your side. Happy Birthday CopMike.

You know I've always had this strange idea of a panda as well... Not to get off topic, I guess I should share my title, which for reference is currently Innocent, Rational, Smart, Overly Verbose, CRAZY! It has gradually evolved over the last few months, I think various people have been adding to it. So yes, about that panda...

Um, my face is still happy to run my one in August. My face is also starting to feel Mafia-cravings after such a long absence... ... my face is confused as to what is happening.

My building is coming very slowly, but hopefully I'll get some work done in the next week. We'll see how things go.

As I'm not scheduled until later in the year anyway, I have no problem with NewRight running a game. I am looking forward to taking part if I can, it sounds interesting.

I voted for option 2, just the possibility of a monorail and a tram has be all buzzing with excitement! Yay for monorails! And also for trams, they're sweet as well.

No no, I think the phrase you were looking for is: CRAZY idea!!!

Man Shadows, you're CRAZY! This sounds like CRAZY fun, perhaps one of my multiply personalities will want to take part. I do! That is, anyone other than Majiko; you're probably a bit too CRAZY, even for this... So, just to get this clear, we are showing our April Fools jester in his normal CRAZY job, not pulling a CRAZY prank? And no CRAZY rules on use of customs, size etcetc blah blah blah? Sounds sweet. CRAZY sweet.

Oh lovely, good job you two! Good to see some new entries. I like your roofing effect Erdbeereis, very cool. Unfortunately I wont be able to enter the contest, time is a bit of a luxury for me at the moment, but I will endeavour to get my gatehouse finished. Sometime. Eventually.

Not quite Lego, but still related. I got myself another lamp for my photo set-up, so now I finally have three! Hopefully I'll be able to set things up to try and get my picture quality a bit better now. I did place a small order with Little Armoury for a couple of space weapons however; I'll have to wait a bit longer for the medieval ones to be back in stock it seems.

Wow, truly some sweet weapons there, what a pleasant surprise! I look forward to taking a good look at them, there is a lot to see. This new version of the ammo chain is very interesting, I wonder whether the U-clips will be produced in the goldish colour as well to help blend in? The black looks a little odd to me. I'm also looking forward to these new colours! Thanks for sharing Badger, you're awesome.

I should add that all the pirate sets are currently available in New Zealand retailers, apart from the impulse sets which I haven't seen anywhere. It is very interesting that they haven't sailed into Australia yet.

Congrats LuxorV, keep up the great work! Very much deserved.

And what question might that be my dear? If you are referring to your earlier statements about the death of Mr. Blackwater, well I can tell you that nobody pulled the lever, or pressed the switch, because there wasn't one. He decided he couldn't continue playing the game any longer so I dropped a chandelier on him, pure and simple. Is that too hard to understand?

I considered a dog tag, but settled on the hat as being a little less obvious (if not by much). In terms of giving clues I had most of them all sorted out, where they would be, what they would contain etc, although I did have to adapt once or twice to give you all a nudge in the right direction.

Thanks for all the great comments guys. As I said in the third paragraph, Badger was kind enough to provide them for me. That gunblade sure is sweet! As I understand it, it is most likely going to be mass produced, but I think there is still some work going on in terms of design. I can't seem to find an official statement anywhere sorry, but I'll see if I can find out and confirm for you. I really like it too, and I'm sure I'll have plenty to say in part 2 on it.

:laugh: You read my mind completely! Now it's not going to be a surprise!

The Race for Armament - Part 1 An Article and Review by Dragonator In the last few years minifig customization has become more and more a central part of the Lego community, with many individuals working on their own custom minifigs at home, and even some people taking it that step further and producing custom equipment for Lego enthusiasts to enjoy. BrickArms LLC (from here just called BrickArms) is an excellent example of a home-run business which produces custom minifig-compatible weapons for our favourite little men, and this article will focus predominantly on reviewing some of the upcoming products BrickArms will be offering, as well as discussing a bit about the company itself. So what, you might ask, is BrickArms? According to Will Chapman, the owner and operator of the company and long-time AFOL, BrickArms is "a small toy company specializing in original, custom designed Lego-compatible weapons and custom minifigs." The company is based at Will's home in Redmond WA in the United States of America, where Will is helped by his wife and three sons to design the toys and prepare them for delivery. The company was founded in 2006 when Will's youngest son, then aged 9, requested that his Dad design some World War II weapons for him. And the rest, is history. One other notable figure in the BrickArms team is the enigma that is badger, normally just addressed as Badger. Badger is the official company spokesperson, and is the one many of us are familiar with for getting the word out about upcoming products and general news about the company. It was Badger who was kind enough to send me a parcel containing a few prototypes for upcoming products, and it is the contents of this package which I will be reviewing as part of this article. At the moment BrickArms offers a number of products for order through their online website, including 31 different weapons, a number of weapon packs, and a variety of custom minifigs. All of the products produced by BrickArms are of the highest quality, made in the exact same way as Lego products, with injection moulding and lots of hot ABS plastic. BrickArms also has a small amount of other merchandise available, including T-shirts, dog tags and vinyl decals. Now, let's move on to the most exciting part of the article, the review of upcoming products! I invited a few friends to help model the weapons, so sit back and enjoy the show. The Complete Set In the above picture you will see all the contents of my parcel. In this part I will cover all the firing weapons, and then I will focus on the rest in Part 2 of this article. Firing Weapons The Guns The guns, in all their glory. That's a lot of fire power right there! Certainly lots to see, so let's get cracking. "Free" Weapon One of the really neat perks about buying from BrickArms is that with every order you make you are guaranteed to receive a randomly selected free weapon in a limited edition colour. The weapons above are in one of the new colours, olive-green, which has been available for the last couple of months. Other colours which you could receive include dark blue grey, medium grey, nickel silver metallic, gold, medium green and light grey. This is a very nice gesture from Will, and is also nice because currently the weapons are only available in black, with a few available in silver as part of the Limited Edition Silver Weapons Pack. It is however understood that BrickArms is likely to release its weapons in some other colours some time this year, so that is certainly something exciting to look forward to! While black is very cool and traditional, it is always nice to have some choice in the colour palette. Also in this photo you can see the BrickArms monopod and bipod, both of which are very useful accessories for the BrickArms weapons, allowing them to be held in different ways, positioned on the ground etc. Those are a very nice idea, and I love them! The Bazooka and High-Explosives Round Here we see the first of the prototypes to be reviewed. Let's start with the Bazooka, a weapon which BrickArms fans have been keen for for quite some time. This wonderful bad-boy is big, standing just a little taller than the average minifig. It incorporates motifs from both the M1 and the M9 bazookas to create a versatile accessory for any minifig. One of the best features of this, in my opinion, is the incorporation of a stock, which really adds something to this, making it more than just a black tube with a handle. You've also got to love the flair at the end of this thing, I mean that's just awesome! Here we can see a side view, and I must say that although it is big, it seems to fit the Lego scale perfectly. The only draw back is that a minifig can only grip the thing by the handle and not by the actual barrel, as it is a little thicker, however this was done to make the scale fit better and look more realistic, and this happens with a lot of Will's designs. Will also designed a high-explosives round to compliment the bazooka, and although you can't actually put it inside the gun(unless you mod it, of course), it still makes a very nice accessory. One of the really neat things about this round is that the tail end fits perfectly into a technique axle hole. It's little details like that which really grip me, the sort of things you only discover after a bit of messing around with the item in question. You may well note that the silver high-explosives round has a green streak in it. This is caused because these prototypes are produced by Will himself at home, and he likes to experiment in colour swirling to create one-of-a-kind marbled effects. Will owns his own CNC (Computer Numerically Controlled) machine for cutting his own moulds in aluminium, as well as a small hand-crank injection moulder for filling them. He often uses ground up Lego bricks as his source of ABS plastic, giving a perfect colour match. A very cool idea. You may also note that the minifig modelling above does not seem familiar. That is because it is one of the number of various minifigs available from BrickArms, sporting custom decals and coming with a few BrickArms weapons too. This particular one is a German WWII soldier, and it is possible to purchase other WWII minifigs including Germans and Americans, as well as a number of bandits and police officers. Will also creats limited edition minifigs which are only available at the events that he goes to, so if you are lucky enough to attend one, look out for what he has. These have included a Chief, Medic, Paratrooper, and even a Tommy. The Colt Navy Pistol and Derringer Two very, very nice western side-arms, the Colt Navy Pistol and the compact Derringer. These are just the things Wild West fanatics have been waiting for, and I must say that even I am taken by them, and I'm not so much a Western lad. Let's start with the CNP (Colt Navy Pistol). This has a very nice design, with a good length barrel and some excellent attention detail which we see in all BrickArms products. In think the detail on the cylinder is impressive, and as you can see in the photo below, a minifig can also grip the cylinder: Now isn't that cool? I do almost wonder if this item is actually very, very slightly too big, but that is probably just because I have displayed it along side what I believe to be the smallest BrickArms weapon, the derringer. Now this is just cute. Look at it! The thing is tiny! And for such a small weapon it sure packs in a lot of detail. The first time I saw this I thought that it was perhaps a bit too small, but I have come to like it's little nature. Remember that big things come in small packages. In reality, this gun is tiny, and it is the perfect size to be concealed in a briefcase or to be realistically pulled out of a minifig pocket. Now, take another look at that and tell me it isn't gorgeous. I also think that this works really well in silver; it will be interesting to see what it looks like in black if it is produced in that way. The MGL (Grenade Launcher) and Ammo Clip Now this is a nice gun. It looks good, it fits the scale well, and it just reeks of powerful explosives. This gun is quite chunky compared to some of the other weapons, and this contrasts with the very thin stock. I'm not sure if I like this so much, it looks a bit thin, but I presume that that is because of the design of the weapon this is based off. Despite that this is a really cool weapon, with also sorts of detailed features such as the scope, the trigger guard and the large drum. As you can see the gun fits the contours of a minifig perfectly, with the stock being the exact right length, and the handle at a nice angle. You can see that a lot of time must be spent getting this exactly right. Another cool thing about this is that the drum piece is removable. Take a look below. In the last three photographs you will have noticed the small ammo clip that the soldier is holding. This is a very cool piece, and although it can't actually be used in any of the guns, it makes a nice accessory for a touch of added realism. And again, the detail is great! I like this gun so much I decided it needed two minifigs to models. So above is our local gangster come to try it out. I wouldn't want to mess with him. Well, that's all the upcoming firing prototypes I have to share with you. There are of course many others Will has in the makings, it's just that I don't have them to review. Anyway, here is a list of some of the other upcoming items with a couple of comments on each. The Panzerfaust - very nice in my opinion, although quite plain. It has no handle, as is correct to the real one, however a BrickArms monopod easily fixes this. The Gunblade - this is an awesome looking Sci-Fi weapon, and I really do hope it is released, because I would love to get a few. I've always had a passion for Science Fiction, and this is just sweet. Really nicely detailed, and well designed. The Ammo Chain - this is a really neat concept, which combines the HE rounds with two sizes of U-clip (covered in part 2) to make a very cool ammo chain. Time Bomb - this is a fairly new item t be revealed, and it has already grabbed my attention for its simple genious. The design is of course not finalized, but at the moment it consists of two red sticks of dynamite and a small grey control panel, possibly removable. MG42 - aka the buzzsaw. This is a very unique weapon and very different from most of the guns from BrickArms. I understand there will also be an ammo chain for this, probably revealed at BrickFest this month. I'm eager to see what it will look like, for the gun is pretty sweet. Frag Grenage - another grade type, with the "pineapple" shape. Looks pretty nice, although the design is still in the works I think. Brodie Helmet - now this is cool, and really a nice piece for all you lovers of the good old Tommie. I understand that this helmet was available with a special minifig at one of the events BrickArms attended last year, and it was well received. Lewis Gun - this has to be by far one of the best upcoming prototypes, and I honestly cannot wait for it to become available. With a removable round magazine and fantastic attention to detail, this is really historically accurate and a true masterpiece. Probably my favourite upcoming firing weapon I'd say. M1917 Revolver - a classic revolver. Much like the CNP, it has a cylinder which can be gripped. And if I am correct, that is everything for the upcoming firing weapons. I'm sorry I don't have pictures of those last few, but you can find most of them on the BrickArms Forums. This is probably a good time to mention that yes, BrickArms does have its own little forum, where Will and Badger, along with their team of moderators, are happy to discuss their products and see what you think of them. You can also find official announcements and information about policies and event attendance etc here too. BrickArms is currently set to attend BrickFest this weekend in Portland, OR, as well as BrickWorld and BrickCon later in the year. Be sure to look out for them if you are lucky enough to be going. The MP7 I would like to finish off part 1 of this article with a look at a discontinued item from last year, the MP7. This is a very nice gun which is unfortunately no longer available from BrickArms for reasons beyond their control. Nevertheless, it is a well designed gun, and I think the slightly lesser amount of detail works well with it. You may also note the flat silver colour of this and some of the other items featured in this article, as opposed to the "flecked" silver colour of earlier designs. It is my understanding that BrickArms plans to make the flat silver their main silver colour and do away with the flecked version. Just something more to think on. Note that this gun has a short stock but it still fits a minifig really nicely. It is a shame that this is not available any more. Well that concludes part 1 of this article on BrickArms. Look out for part 2 in a couple of weeks, which will cover bladed weapons, Sci-Fi weapons, and miscellaneous items, as well as a bit on the over-moulding process. Feel free to share your thoughts on these upcoming items, and again a big thank you to Badger for providing them. -ator

Do think I was perhaps a little to detailed in my analysis?

Did you really expect anything else? Glad you had fun, and enjoy the read, it is quite thorough.

Indeed, well done Sandy. Everyone please feel free to take a look at the conclusion thread and leave any further comments there. I'm sure you're all dying to know what happens at the end, and what happened the previous night.

The Conclusion The group of detectives walk down into the vault, congratulating Sandy and shooting suspicious glances at the Lieutenant, who looks rather perplexed. Once in the room, Dragonator began to speak. Gather 'round everyone and I will tell you the full story of Lord Chester's demise. Lord Chester has known since he first became the Lord of this manor that the place held a secret. Chester was not the nicest of men, and in the last year he has been tired of his position, and decided to see if he could make a little money out of the society that was constricting him. This is where Anthony Blackwater comes in. For many years Lord Chester had used Anthony to find out things about his competitors to help him bribe them etc. Just a few months ago, Anthony came across some information saying that there is a vast treasure hidden in Dragons Retreat. With this in mind, the pair met up and began plotting a way to uncover the treasure and thus make themselves insanely rich. After much talk and more snooping around by Anthony, the pair came to the conclusion that the treasure must be hidden under the library, in some sort of vault. Under the pretence of renovations to extend the library and reinforce the foundations under it, Lord Chester contacted a local building firm, Brick Plates, headed by CEO Michael Dunne. The company agreed to do the renovations after seeing pictures of the manor, and were to send a spokesperson, their own CEO, to discuss what Lord Chester wanted done. Knowing that it would be impossible to keep the company in the dark on what they were doing, Anthony provided a loan of two million dollars to act as a bribe for Mr. Dunne to say nothing about their intentions. While this was all going on, a few other important events were taking place. Peter Crawford, representing the Dratos Historic Places Trust, was continually trying to meet with Lord Chester to discuss opening his manor to the trust. Of course, Chester was not at all interested, firstly because it was going against what the Guardian had told him were the rules, and secondly because he wanted to find the treasure and make a get away anyway. Of course, the Guardian could see that something was up, and he contacted Lord Chester by email to warn him. Paranoid that he might be taken out, Chester began to leave a few coded messages around the house just in case anything happened. It should be noted that some of the coded messages you found though were actually from the Guardian. Lord Chester also had a meeting with Professor Gregory Grimsworth from Dratos University. After cancelling his funding for one of the scholarships there, he invited Dr. Grimsworth to come take a look at his collection the following week, as he wanted to see what sort of money he could get for the artefacts currently on display in the manor. Dr. Grimsworth later sent him a letter accepting his invitation, which was found in Lord Chester's coat pocket. Lord Chester agreed to meet Mr. Dunne on the 30th of November. On the previous day, Anthony discovered some disturbing news, that someone from the Red Dragon society was "stationed in the area" (note that a soldier is normally someone who is stationed somewhere), and fearing for his colleague, sent a letter to him outlining his worries. Lord Chester received this the next morning, but decided to ignore the warning, deciding instead to go through with his plans anyway. This treasure was worth a little risk. Later the next day Anthony learned the identity of the Red Dragon operative, but by that time it was too late to warn Chester. As evening approached Lord Chester prepared for his guest. After the chef had prepared his dinner and the butler had set the table, Lord Chester made sure they left, following the orders he had left on the hallway table. Then he settled down to wait for his guest, preparing a tray of wine in the parlour, arranging the table and chairs by the cosy fireplace and setting the TV in case the CEO wanted to use the DVD player to show him any plans. At 8:42pm Michael Dunne arrived, and Lord Chester showed him up into the dining room to see if he was interested in eating before their meeting. As Michael entered the room he accidentally knocked one of the spears being held by a statue, pushing it off centre. Michael said that he would rather get on with their talks, so the pair walk through to the parlour and sit down around the table, after Lord Chester poured wine for Michael. It was around this time that Lieutenant John Spencer, an operative of the Red Dragon, arrived at the manor. Entering through a secret doorway in a cave behind the manor, John descended to the Dragon's Lair, the old meeting place of the Red Dragon society. What Lord Chester did not know was that while he was on holiday a number of months earlier, the members of the Red Dragon had relocated the hidden treasure to another location, and also cleaned out most of their gear from the cellar. All that remained were a few of sets of their ceremonial dress and all the things in storage upstairs, which they were content to leave there for the moment. Lighting the torches, John got dressed into the ceremonial outfit, leaving his hat on the table. His orders from the Guardian had been clear; enter the manor and if you see any sign of Chester breaking the rules, kill him. John had tried ringing Lord Chester earlier in the day to offer him a final warning, however he did not get an answer, as Chester had left his phone in he bedside cabinet upstairs. Picking up a flash light and two keys, one for the upstairs attic door and the other for the large metal gates, John set off through the secret passageways to come down into the Parlour. Meanwhile, in the Parlour, things did not go well for Lord Chester. When Michael Dunne found out what Lord Chester had planned he immediately said he wanted no part in it, and that if Chester went ahead with it anyway then he would have to report it to the appropriate authorities. Pushing back his chair, Michael grabbed his briefcase off the couch and left Lord Chester there, walking out through the ballroom. As he left he finished off the last of his wine and left the glass on one of the rails surrounding the dance floor. Lord Chester, feeling very frustrated, left the parlour and went through to the dining room to eat some dinner. He had only just started eating when John arrived in the parlour. Placing his flash light on the ground in the passageway, John opened the door and walked into the parlour. There he found some of the architectural drawings which Mr. Dunne had accidentally left behind. Furious that Lord Chester was obviously planning a major renovation to try and get hold of the treasure, John grabbed one of the swords from over the fireplace and stormed towards the dining room, hitting the low-hanging light with the sword as he walked past. Lord Chester heard him coming through the door, and as John entered he jumped up in panic and threw one of the plate at him. Using his quick martial arts reflexes, John avoided the plate, which smashed against the door and fell to the ground. In the time it took for this to happen, Lord Chester had rushed over to the wall behind him and was trying to pry a piece of modern art off the wall, behind which was hidden a revolver. Unfortunately he had forgotten to open the compartment by pushing down on the sword arm of the statue in the corner. To late, he remembered, and turning, he found John quickly approaching. Screaming a cry for mercy, Lord Chester tried to sidle over to the statue, but John stabbed him through the chest, toppling him over onto floor, his blood forming a small pool around him and soaking into the rug under the chair he had been sitting in. And so ended the life of Lord Chester. John now had to clean up after himself. Grabbing a napkin off the table, he quickly wiped the blade of blood and walked over to the south wall where the dumb-waiter was hidden. Opening it up, he cut the cable on the lift to allow him to throw the sword down to the bottom where it would end up in the cellar. As he did this he made a small gouge in the far side of the shaft. Next, using a small key taken from Lord Chester himself, John opened up the right draw and cupboard in the cabinet, throwing the bloody napkin into a vase in the cupboard and taking out the front door key and the key to the draw in the ballroom. He also swept up the pieces of the broken plate and put them in the cupboard, although it was impossible to get every single tiny piece. John then locked the cabinet and returned the key to Lord Chester to try and confuse anyone who found the body. Soaking up any blood pooled on the floor with the rug, John wrapped Chester in it and carried him through to the parlour and then up into the passageway. He left the body outside the entrance to the master bedroom, deciding that nobody would find it anyway and he could come back the next day to carry it right out. Walking back down into the parlour with the carpet in tow, John closed the passageway, leaving his flash light inside so that he could use it later. Walking out into the ballroom, John opened the draw of the cabinet there and hid the black chunky key in the back of it, as the Guardian had asked him to. Inside the draw John also found another set of keys belonging to one of the servants, so he decided to take this with him. Then walking out into the hallway, he carelessly chucked the key onto the table there, where it fell off onto the ground. John decided that he couldn't be bothered going all the way back around to get down into the cellar to finish his clean up, so instead he went down the stairs to the front door, thinking to come back the next night and finish getting rid of the few things left over. He knew that nobody except members of the Red Dragon society would go down into the cellar, so it wasn't as if he was taking a risk. As he walked past the kitchen door with the rug still under his arm, he thought that it might look a bit suspicious if he was seen with it, so he opened the kitchen door using the servants keys and threw the rung into the open oven, where it promptly began to burn. Finally, John locked the kitchen door and left the manor for the night, confident that if anyone did start investigating then they would blame Mr. Dunne, who had been the last person to visit. As Dragonator finished his story, the detectives looked at each other. Lieutenant Spencer walked forward and said "But why do I not remember any of this?", and someone else said "But who is the Guardian?" Dragonator smiled. I am the Guardian, and also the owner of this house. Thank you all for coming tonight, it has been such an interesting experiment. As to why you do not remember anything John, that would be because I used a certain drug on you when we met a few hours later that made you forget all that had happened the previous night, allowing you to take part in my little fun tonight. It was interesting to see that these people actually managed to figure everything out. Unfortunately you now know things that you should not. In a few moments I will gas you with the same drug I used on the lieutenant earlier. Good day. Dragonator and John quickly retreated from the vault, closing the door after them. It all happened so quickly that the detectives hadn't even had a chance to do anything. Just as they were about to rush the door, a green gas filled the room, and everyone fell over unconscious. On the 2nd of December 2008, a number of people woke up around the city of Dratos feeling very muddled and wondering what they had done the previous night, for they could not remember coming to their own beds. Meanwhile, two people sat in a manor a few miles out of the city, chatting and watching the hilarities of the previous night on a large TV... The End Well that ends our little game, thanks very much for taking part everyone, I hope you had lots of fun. Congratulations to Sandy for answering all four questions correctly and winning the game. It should also be noted that ImperialScouts was the only other person to take a guess and was also close to the correct answer, he just did not get the weapon right unfortunately. But also congratulations to everyone else too, for without you all taking part this game would not have been what it was. You all contributed to the case in your own way and each of you made some sort of important discovery. If you have any further questions for me about the game please feel free to voice them, and also to offer your own feedback and experiences of the game etc. I think I should also quickly mention the few major clues missed: - an inspection of the floor around the chair in the Dining room would have shown that the floorboards were slightly lighter in colour around the chair, indicating that a rug had been there for many years. - an inspection of the floor would also have revealed a few fragments of the plate. Also an inspection of the door between the dining room and the parlour would have shown a dent where the plate hit it. - an inspection of the frame of the modern painting would have shown a few slivers of wood missing, from when Lord Chester was clawing at it to try and open it. Other than those I think you found all the main clues, so well done!

Solving the Case At that moment, as everyone was wondering what to do next, Miss Sandy stepped forward, and theatrically pointed a finger at Lieutenant Spencer. You sir, are our murderer! I have seen enough evidence here to believe it. You gentlemen just don't have it in you to solve mysteries, it takes girl power to do this. Now, here are my answers to the four questions... WHO: Lieutenant John Spencer, aka. the Guardian. He is the keeper of the secret of the Dragon's Retreat, as proven by the hat in the cellar and the fact that he isn't involved in the case in any other way. All the rest of the detectives are mentioned either by name or indirectly in the clues. WHERE: The dining room. This is where I think I was right at first, but went wrong in my second guess. Chester met with Mr. Dunne in the parlour to go through the papers, but after that he went to have dinner by himself. The cake that was for desert was still waiting in the service lift, for he never got around to eat it. Now, the Guardian, Lt. Spencer, came through the secret passageway into the parlour, saw the documents, and knowing Chester was eating in the next room, grabbed the murder weapon and committed the murder. WITH WHAT: The sword from above the fireplace in the parlour. This is proven by the large puncture wound, the bloody rag that was used to wipe it clean, and the shoddy way it was hid. WHY: Simply because Chester had gone too far in his enthusiasm to renovate the manor and open it to the public, against the Guardian's instructions. I'm eager to find out just who is Lt. Spencer's employer, the real owner of Dragon's Retreat. That's the one mystery that I think is still to be uncovered. As Miss Sandy came to a close, Dragonator stepped forward, clapping slowly. Well done Miss Susan Greenwood, well done indeed. It seems you have managed very well to uncover the murderer despite the false trail he tried to leave. Although you are not quite correct in all the details, and your motive is a little off, I think that you are most definitely our winning detective, as you have uncovered the answers to all the questions, using logic and thinking outside the square. But I'm sure you all want to hear what really happened, so let's walk down to the vault and there I will answer all your questions... End of Chapter A big congratulations to Sandy for being the first person to solve the mystery. I will have a conclusion up shortly (although without pictures, since Brickshelf is down...)

Miss Sandy walks off to find the sword and take it up to he parlour. Having nothing better to do, the rest of the group follows her. As they walk through the cellar you pick up the sword, and then head for the parlour. There you find that the sword matches the other one on display around the fireplace, and that it fits in the empty bracket.

People please, remember that not all manor houses are massive monstrosities, many were not much bigger than an average house. Bathrooms were not often inside houses back in the day, we they used latrines outside. I'd also say this manor wasn't really built to house many guests, more just as a solitary retreat for a busy man. But enough complaining about this manor not being big enough for you (as if we haven't been here long enough already ). Miss Sandy goes to collect the hat and tries it on everyone's heads. The hat fits quite a few heads, so you are unable to determine its ownership by that means. The footprints head up the stairs and towards the door at the end of the room. Perhaps the esteemed members of the Red Dragon brought you all here for a different reason... Who said that?