Dragonator

(Note that I just updated the previous description to the following: John walks over to the cabinet in the south-western corner. It is a tall cabinet with a glass front. Inside you can see three shelves, holding an assortment of wine drinking glasses (a full set of white, red, champagne, as well as water glasses, whiskey glasses etc.), some silver serving platers and a pair of metal candlesticks. The bottom shelf contains an assortment of bottles; mostly red wine, but some white and other things such as rum, whiskey etc.[/i]) John first walks over to the clock and tries his key in it. Nope, doesn't fit there either. The keyhole looks to be more for a small wind-up key rather than a lock key. John then returns to the cabinet on the other side of the room along with Peter. They proceed to pull out the various bottles on the bottom shelf. All seem to be full and corked still, although there is a bottle of brandy, and a bottle of gin that are about half full. In all there are six red wine bottles, two white wines, a bottle of champagne, a bottle of whiskey, a bottle of gin and two bottles of rum. They all appear to contain what they say they do. Peter is very keen to taste them, but John suggests that perhaps it isn't such a good idea. Peter, desperate for a drink, instead walks over to the small table by the clock. There is no draw on it, it is more a small polished side table for putting drinks on, although the table is quite deep. Investigations of the lamp and under the table do not reveal anything. You do note however that the table is inlaid with a lovely spiralling mosaic centred on the image of a dragon inside a circle... The Chef, disappointed he hadn't found the niche, decides to take a look at the two portraits on the south wall. The left painting depicts a roaring dragon scaring a group of soldiers, whilst the right one is a portrait of a handsome man dressed in black robes and with a black dragon helmet on his head. The inscription under it reads "Lord Dragonator, founder of Dragon's Retreat". Both portraits are the same size, approximately 3 metres high and two wide. They both are held inside large, chunky, ornate frames, with a pattern of vines and roses twinning around each edge and a small spiralling motif in each corner. Taking a bite out of the turkey leg he is holding, the Chef walks over to the left hand painting and tries to look behind it. It is unfortunately firmly attached to the wall. The portrait on the right however easily swings forward on oiled hinges to reveal a large hatch in the wall. Beside the hatch is a small panel with two buttons labelled "Call" and "Kitchen". Michael opens the pistol and finds that it contains all six bullets. It does not appear to have been fired recently. He then walks over to the table and looks underneath. There is a small draw beside the large chair at the west end. Sliding it out reveals a modern control panel with buttons for controlling the lights, the TV and some sort of sound system which must be hidden in the ceiling. The top of the table is set for two people, one at each end, and contains a pile of food, all untouched except for a single chicken leg at the west end of the table. There is nothing else on it of interest.

Peter walks over to the grandfather clock. The clock has a tall central cabinet with a glass door inside which you can see the pendulum and weights. The clock face itself is depicted with carved ivory and gilded wood; it must be quite old. The clock has a small hole in the face where a key can be inserted to wind it up. It seems to have wound down, and has stopped at eight minutes to four. Opening the glass cabinet does not reveal anything you couldn't see before. Michael looks at the pistol. The barrel and working parts are made of iron, while the handle is made of wood inlaid with mother-of-pearl in the shape of a dragon. John walks over to the cabinet in the south-western corner. It is a tall cabinet with a glass front. Inside you can see three shelves, holding an assortment of wine drinking glasses (a full set of white, red, champagne, as well as water glasses, whiskey glasses etc.), some silver serving platers and a pair of metal candlesticks. The bottom shelf contains an assortment of bottles; mostly red wine, but some white and other things such as rum, whiskey etc. Dr. Phil decides he wants to examine the dragon designs on the armour. The three designs are all the same, and show a rearing dragon breathing fire. It is a familiar design seen on many old buildings around the city of Dratos, mainly public buildings like libraries and old military barracks. It is the official crest of the old royal family.

What exactly are you looking for, if I might ask?

Dr. Phil climbs up on one of the small black chairs and takes a look at the chandelier. It is made of a wooden inner circle with gold fittings spaced around the outside. You cannot see anything else worthy of note. Meanwhile, Anthony decides to take a closer look at the rug under the chair. Moving it aside does not reveal anything underneath it unfortunately. He then goes to look underneath all the chairs, but does not find anything of any note. Chef Frederick decides to inspect the three modern paintings. They appear to all be by some painter named Pablo Piccaso. The two paintings on the north wall are simply hung on hooks and you can easily lift them off. There does not appear to be anything behind them. The picture on the west wall seems to be attached to it however, you cannot get it off. Peter switches on the DVD player, but nothing happens. It appears that there is no disc inside the player. A little disgruntled, Peter walks over to the table and inspects the food. There are a couple of bites out of one of the chicken legs at the west end, but other than that the food is untouched. You cannot detect any obvious signs of poison; for example nothing appears to be bubbling suspiciously. Michael walks over to the coat rack and searches the pockets. There is a label in the top that says C. Dracus. There are also three pockets. The first is empty, the second contains a handkerchief and a spare button, and the third contains a pair of gloves, a credit card and a small envelope with a letter inside. The letter reads as follows: Dear Lord Chester, I would be honoured to accept your invitation to take a look at your collection, I understand it is one of the finest in the world for Draconian artefacts. It can be very difficult to study this amazing time with not many specimens to work from, so I appreciate you opening your collection for my inspection. I will talk with you soon to arrange an appropriate time to visit the house. I must tell you that I am very excited about this opportunity, as your predecessors have never been willing to have visitors for some reason. I look forward to speaking with you. Yours sincerely, ~G. G Miss Sandy, unhappy that she did not find anything behind the banner, decides to take a look at the suit of armour in the corner. It is very different to all the previous sets, and has a common dragon design on the shield, cape and breastplate. Perhaps a skilled historian might know what this is? Miss Sandy pulls down on the sword arm of the armour. A click can be heard, and the painting to the left swings off the wall on smooth hinges, startling the Chef who was vainly trying to pry it off the wall. Behind it is a small niche containing a pistol and single sheet of paper. It seems to be another cryptogram, and reads as follows: wfn kcqqlbjz wb wfn gbhkewnj xq hbynr.

John pulls out his small key and tries it in one of the locks in the cabinet. The key does not fit, it is a bit to big. Meanwhile, Miss Sandy goes to look behind the banner on the western wall. There is nothing behind it except the stone wall. Peter looks at the TV and then switches it on. It appears that it is currently set to the DVD player, which is underneath the screen. Peter then walks over to look at the rug underneath the chair at the eastern end of the table. It is a small square rug which nicely fits the chair on it. The pattern on it consists of a boarder of red flames on a blue background, with a spiralling design in the centre done in dark greens and blues. You cannot see anything else of any note.

I just bought the 50 year anniversary brick set #5522 after putting it off for a while. It's not exciting in itself, but I need some bricks to make supports for my MOC I need to start and finish by Friday. Anyway, it looks like a cool set, especially since it has a gold brick in it, and great value too, pulling in at 50NZD for 700 bricks or so. It's just unfortunate there are never any Christmas sales on Lego in New Zealand. Anyway, I also saw that my local supplier has finally got hold of some of the USC AT-STs, so I think I may be getting myself one of those fairly soon. I need to start my lay-by on the Falcon too, as well as a couple of other sets (Green Grocer, General Grevious etc.). Yeah, I'm already broke, and I still have all the 2009 sets to look forward to!!

Peter, quick to adjust to the light, walks over to the large oak cabinet on the south wall. The top cupboard swings open to reveal a large 42 inch plasma television. The three draws and the cupboards are locked however. Each has a small keyhole in it. It is my understanding that Lord Chester also used this room as a conference room for meetings that didn't need to happen in his offices.

Throwing open the doors, the detectives walk... into darkness... Chaos ensures for a matter of minutes, until someone find the light switch. Then the detectives survey where they are. Apparently you have entered the Dining Room. And what a room it is. Stretching to the west of the house, it is massive, and just as fine as the foyer, if not more so. Other than the door you entered through, there is one other door in the middle of the north wall. The table is laden with food, and a large chair sits at the far end, with a slightly smaller yet equally as grand one sitting at the closer (eastern) end of the table. Two other chairs stand on the north side of the table. In the middle of the table is a large black candelabra, and above it is a chandelier similar to the one in the foyer. In the far north-western corner of the room is another statue, with three examples of modern artwork on the walls to either side. A large banner adorns the west wall, with two shields above it. The south wall (not pictured) has a large oak cabinet in the centre of it, with two large portraits, one on either side of it. The cabinet itself has a large central cupboard on top, with three draws and three smaller cupboards underneath. Another cabinet is in the south-western corner. In the south-eastern corner is a grandfather clock with a small table next to it which holds a lamp. The eastern wall (not pictured) is the one through which you entered. On either side of the doors is another statue like the ones in the hallway, except these hold large ornate pikes instead of swords. There are also two beautiful Persian rugs on the floor, one under the table and one beneath the chair at the east end of the table (not pictured). In the north-eastern corner is a large wooden coat rack, which holds a dark red coat. "Well, let us take a look around and see what we can find" suggests Dragonator. ********** Remember that to win the game you must answer the following four questions: WHO committed the crime? WHERE was the crime committed (which room)? WHAT was the murder weapon? WHY was he killed (motive)? For the full list of rules, please click on the picture at the top of the page or follow this link. Participants: 1. ImperialShadows - Peter Crawford; Lawyer 2. Sandy - Susan Greenwood; Receptionist 3. WhiteFang - Dr. Phillip Marshall; General Practitioner 4. Hinckley - Max Sinclair; Actor 5. Sir Dillon - Michael Dunne; CEO of Brick Plates 6. jipay - Bernard Knightly; President of the DHPT 7. ImperialScouts - Lieutenant John Spencer; Soldier 8. Sir Nadroj - Dermot Stephens; University Student 9. Mr. Mandalorian - Dr. Gregory Grimsworth; University Professor 10. TheBrickster - Anthony Blackwater; Private Detective 11. Erdbeereis1 - Chef Frederick Valentine; Chef

This is a very cool siege entry, you have used some nice techniques to give a very appealing effect. I absolutely love what you do with the minfigs, they look so alive and very much real. Your custom faction is very cool too, the shields look great! There is a lot of action going on there which is really what a siege entry needs. Really a nice piece of work, you've made some really interesting builds for this contest and this is definitely one of my favourites. Good luck in the contest!

Wow, it's amazing, it's fantastic, and I absolutely love it to bits!! Man you've got me all excited.That must be one of the coolest tapestries I've ever seen, and not just because it's of a dragon. It's cool how you can see all the details in it, from the forked tongue to the fangs and the spins on the back of the head. Truly outstanding work, I think we might have a winner! I was considering quickly building something for this category, but I think I'll focus on my siege entry, because you've got this one made! I just can't get over how cool it is to see a dragon tapestry! Thank you so much, I'm honoured to know you. Oh the emotion is getting to me. So how did you come up with the design? Did you use a computer to render it first from an original picture, or did you make it up completely? If so did you have a plan all drawn up, or did you just shape it as you built? Whatever you did, the end result is terrific, and has certainly impressed this dragon lover!

Welcome to our humble part of the internet Mariann. I've visited your site before and was considering buying the book, perhaps I will take you up on it some time in the future. Your work looks amazing, I'm looking forward to you sharing it with us so I can get a better look. I hope you enjoy yourself here, it's a great community. Just try and avoid the crazy people, and you'll be fine. (that is, the entire staff and many others, probably including myself. ) Anyway welcome, and I'll see you around.

Well I would be happy to step in with my Mystery Castle 2, but I'm already hosting a game at the moment, so that one shall have to wait for later next year. I'm looking forward to seeing what the next game is like, these Mafia games are always fun in their own ways because of the different characters and settings in all of them. So yeah, um, Baritones anyone? No pressure on you though Hinck if you're not ready yet, I'm expecting this next one of yours to be amazing, if not fantastic. So take your time.

It was a good survey I must say, I just hope they actually listen to what we have to say. Eurobricks was of course at the top of my list, and it was indeed very scary coming up with a figure on the amount spent on LEGO this year. I'm not even going to say I'm that embarrassed. Anyway, I had about 35% of my spending coming from Bricklink and eBay, so that probably helped to hitch up my total a bit.

I think it's fine, I'm all for a bit of free minded thinking as long as it is meant in good jest and is not designed to offend. But a hammer!? They must sure get up to some... interesting... things in there. I think the woman is very well designed, even if the taste is a little vulgar. You know, her legs and pants remind me a bit of a sumo wrestler for some reason, but I see crazy things like that everywhere. Nice job so far, it'll be interesting to see how this turns out. I do have one small suggestion, it would be good if you could do something with the ledges above the inside windows (the ones left by the castle wall panels). They look a bit dull just sitting there, perhaps a shelf with booze or something?

Ohhhh, matrimony!! What, can you not see I'm trying to soliloquize? Wah wah wah... (Oh WhiteFang, don't feel that way, I'm just overreacting like I usually do ) Boo hoo hoo.... *snivel* But seriously, my new personal challenge is to try and stump TheBrickster. Although that's probably impossible, he's just too good. Ah well, I'll just have to make do with the rest of you.

Hey I made that up myself! It probably took me longer to make it than it took Brickster to solve it... Ahem, anyway, um, yes. Let's see if I can't make a harder one...

Indeed... Well, that's the end of chapter one, and I must say you have all been playing exceptionally so far. But things are only going to get harder. :pir-skull: I think congratulations are in order for TheBrickster, who solved the cryptogram so fast; I had thought you would all be working on that together for a while at least. Chapter two will be up on at the end of the weekend, so be ready to start looking for some real clues then...

Well done Anthony, you cracked that code mighty fast! (I'll have to make the next one harder now ) Perhaps we will find a chimney to look in and find this key that it speaks of. Right, well if you're all finished looking around this room, then we shall proceed through the west doors. The group of EB detectives walk confidently towards the tall west doors, feeling that perhaps this mystery wouldn't be to hard after all, since they had got these first clues so easily. However the mystery was only just beginning. Throwing open the doors, the detectives walked... into darkness... End of Chapter One

Hmmm, I wonder who could have provided the BrickZone Indy Torsos... There are some nice prizes being given out, you sure are a generous lot.

John picks up the coin and takes a look at it. The coin appears to be quite old, and bears on one side some sort of crest and on the other bust of somebody's head. Can anyone identify this coin? It looks old...

Yay, I love dragons! Oh.. that's a little scary. Is this the future of dragons in the modern world? Well, it's their choice I suppose. Still, I mean... hands? A very creative creature Sir N, certainly not how most would envision dragons in the modern world. Still, it is a possibility... Nice use of parts as always, although I can't help being disturbed by this one... I mean... is it a dragon, or isn't it?

The group decides that they will head west, but first a couple of them have one or two things to do. Peter has a quick look through the other two doors, and believes that the east ones lead to a Library and the grand north ones into some sort of Ballroom. The group had already decided to head through the west doors however, so they would go that way once the others have finished looking around. Bernard takes a closer look at the swords and the dragon carving. The swords are plainer than the one downstairs, probably more likely to belong to a more common soldier. They still look incredibly valuable however, and they are not registered in the Trust. For that matter, neither is anything else in the house. The dragon carving seems to be appearing in a number of places, perhaps it is some kind of seal? You cannot see anything strange about it. Meanwhile, Michael decides to take one last look at the hallway, this time focusing on the wooden panels in the walls. When inspecting the far panel on the west wall, he discovers a small circular carving of a dragon, exactly the same as the one on the north doors, hidden behind the head of the suit of armour. He pushes it, and a small compartment slides out of the wall. Inside is a single sheet of paper and small gold coin. Written on the sheet is the following: gbbp wu clx zlwouxs que sbt rwgg mwue clx pxs. Other than that the only thing on the page is a blob of wax at the bottom right corner. Pressed into the wax is the impression of a dragon inside a circle. Perhaps we should take a look at this clue before moving on?

Man, what a game! I really don't know what to think, I'm still utterly confused. Either Tiny Pius is a pure genius or he's an evil old M%g@bl&$k. Either way, that was an excellent game, and I thoroughly enjoyed it, especially seeing Hinck killed and then complain about it for the rest of the game. It was a very different concept and personally I think it went very well. We were forced to think differently and consider things in a new light to win the game, which made it challenging and certainly kept me interested. I was confused for about half the game though, ever since the Inquisitor said I was a heretic, which I knew wasn't true. I was certain he wasn't evil, and yet he continued to lie, so I thought that we had to get rid of him. And then Hinckley and Alexander confused me even more with all their crazy ideas (one of which turned out to be true ). Ah, what fun. Also, I had a lot of fun trying to convince you all that I was innocent! I know that sounds crazy, but I enjoyed the challenge of convincing you all when you were all set on killing me. I was certain that I was a gonna there a couple of times. That made it particularly exciting for me. Yeah, so I enjoyed it, even if it did have a crazy ending and we ended up voting for you. I'm looking forward to seeing what great idea somebody has for the next game, as these ones we've had so far have all been fantastic in their own way. I'll add my own applause as well.

The group go back down stairs and try the key in the lock. It is far to small to fit. They return back up stairs to face the three doors and the piercing stare of the dragon. So now what? Is it to be the west doors, like some of you have suggested? Or the east ones? Or perhaps the large northern pair? Or are you not finished looking here yet? The choice is yours people, chose wisely, for this mystery is just starting to get interesting...

So, ah, how many more of these do you have to sell?