Dine

Upon entering the mansion foyer Jacob noticed that not only the chandelier but also a lot of wall-mounted lights and lamps now bathed the room in light. This included the second floor, which was previously covered in darkness.

But before checking the second floor he decided to explore the remaining unexplored room connected to the foyer, hoping to finish checking the first floor and confine the totality of unknown areas to the second floor.

With that, he made his way to the final door within the foyer and decisively entered it.

As he did so, he kept his eyes open, whipping his head left and right, searching for any noticeable movement. After confirming that no spooky surprises were waiting for him, he looked more closely at the room.

It quickly became apparent that he had found the dining room.

A vast and lengthy table adorned with seating for 10 ran down the extensive and well-lit room.

The extravagant wall art, the table settings, the lavish silver wear, and the assortment of fancy candles placed at each dish, everything in the room was meant to impress and impose upon its guests.

After his initial look at the room, he decided to take a closer stock of everything and found 2 main points of interest.

First was the door at the end of the room. It appeared openable, and by that, he meant it had a functional doorknob that turned when he tried it.

After deliberating a bit, he decided to further explore this room before properly opening the door, primarily because he didn't want to trigger anything by attempting to leave.

The next thing he took note of was one of the 8 distinct paintings that adorned the wall. Each was of a different old man except for one, the end painting on the left wall.

The difference became more apparent when considering the names written on a wooden plaque located just below each painting. Luckily Jacob could actually read these words, unlike the books in the library.

All the plaques showed the same last name, Ashling.

However, the first name changed with every portrait. Arngril, Oswell, Prical, Lavaticus, Iventri, Sorvon, and Netera.

The distinct difference was that the final portrait had its first name removed, with a further inspection of the damaged wood revealing it had been roughly broken off.

Wondering if there was some other clue in the paintings, Jacob searched them in the hopes that some distinct characteristic would unveil itself, and sure enough, it did.

The men in the paintings were shown sitting in luxurious chairs with a small stool holding a candle next to them. The position was the same, the pose was the same, and even their facial expression was identical.

The only difference was the shape of the candles that were placed on the stool.

The very same candles were located on the dining room table, one for each seat.

The next step was obvious, count the candles.

A short series of checking and counting revealed that 2 paintings differed from the rest.

That of Lavaticus and Oswell, as the candles within their portrait appeared on the dining table twice while the rest only had one candle.

Thrilled by his discovery, he quickly inspected the two paintings more closely. Only to find nothing out of the ordinary, either with the frame or the canvas.

Dismayed by this, he again began to count the candles, this time taking note of where exactly they were placed.

This left him with the order of Inventri, Sorvon, Oswell, Netera, Arngril, Lavaticus, Lavatics, no-name, Prical, and Oswell.

'If the total doesn't matter, maybe the order does' Jacob thought.

'Let's assume that the repetition of Lavatics is a clue since it stands out. Maybe that's where the pattern repeats?' He thought to himself as he tried a variety of things, including tapping the candles in the order of the paintings and then the paintings in the order of the candles.

After getting no results, he almost gave up and decided to try the next door when he thought of something.

'What about the initials?' He realised.

Right after the thought crossed his mind, he started to piece together the puzzle, the new strategy he gave him a new code ISONALL?PO.

Gibberish? Yes.

Useless? No.

For example, the words SON and ALL were both included in the code.

With a little change to when the sequence started, he quickly arrived at a much more sensible answer.

ALL?POISON.

Following this was the assumption that the no-name was not an unknown letter but an intentional space leading to the final result of his deciphering, ALL POISON.

Of course, he had no doubt that there was another reason for the lack of a first name on the final and newest portrait.

His best guess was that the person was the latest in the line of whatever ancestry was depicted in the paintings.

The man must have done something horrific or at least against what they valued to the degree of effectively disowning him, hence the lack of a name.

But he had no time to delve into what exactly.

He had just solved the riddle and found his answer, ALL POISON.

Now.

How was that helpful exactly?

No food was on the table, so he doubted it was meant to dissuade him from an obvious meal.

Not to mention that even when offered a fresh apple earlier, he had not eaten it, making the message seem rather pointless.

A little more searching revealed nothing else of interest, and no amount of thinking provided him with another interpretation of the clues, so he came to the conclusion that now was the time to move on.

Since there was no danger like in the basement, he assumed this was an optional puzzle. One that could be skipped without consequence but may prove helpful later.

Therefore, he embraced the great unknown again and stepped into the next room.

Only to be greeted with a blow to the back of his head.

Followed by nothingness.