Chapter 1-2 Lavenza Mansion Incident

Hello everyone, and welcome to our Walkthrough for the Second Stage of Chapter 1 for the Frankenstein Room ESC adventure game.

Stage 1-2 starts at Sachsen Police Station. Schmitz, the chief investigator, is wondering why are Huskley’s documents missing, and could this be related to the previous incident that happened three months ago at the Lavenza mansion.

The Schmitz is lost in her thoughts, remembering the aforementioned incident and this is where our story begins. Upon arriving at the mansion our protagonist is informed by the police officer that the crime was reported by Lavenza’s daughter Elizabeth. Apparently, almost all of the servants were attending the royal event and weren’t at home yesterday. This is good news for us because it reduces the number of possible suspects. Schmitz thinks that the crime was planned in advance, and the absence of servants presented a perfect opportunity to execute it. The servants were “borrowed” to the royal family by the Lavenza himself (the victim), so the murderer must be someone that knew this information. Upon arrival, the police ordered everyone not to touch the crime scene, and it’s now up to us to start unraveling this mystery.

The only person you can interact with outside the house is a policeman. Tap on him and he will inform you that the crime happened inside the house. You can’t question the witnesses at this point in time (you will first have to gather the evidence and investigate the crime scene in order to ask the right questions, later).

With all that said, let’s get into the mansion. Tap on the front door to open them, and tap again to enter.

Tap on the body in front of you to examine it. We will discover that this was Mrs. Lavenza. It seems she bled out, after suffering a chest wound.

Sweep around the room until you find a policeman that is standing at the base of the stairs, and tap on him to initiate a conversation. He will inform you that they took everyone outside and that there is another body in the reception room, on the right. The policeman didn’t notice anything unusual upstairs. However, Schmitz told him to send some officers upstairs to investigate and inform her as soon as they find something of interest. Well, it looks like we will be investigating the ground floor, for now. Since we already know there’s another body in the room to the right, let’s first head there.

Turn to your right, and tap on the white door to open, then tap again to enter into the next room.

There is nothing of interest in here, so sweep to the other end of the room, until you see a door, tap to open it, and tap once again to go into the next room.

Well, we still didn’t get to reception, so go through the door on your left into the next room.

Now we are in the reception room. Tap on the policewoman in front of you, to hear what she has to say about the crime. Well, she only says where the murders happened (Mrs. Lavenza at the front door, and Mr. Lavenza in this room – reception room).

However, after the conversation, the Magnifying Glass will be added to our inventory (just like in the previous chapter), and we should use it to closely examine the crime scene and gather all the evidence. It looks like this chapter will be very similar to the previous one. So, we will probably have to gather evidence, interrogate the witnesses while trying to figure out the order of events, and finally, reconstruct the crime scene in chronological order – unless I’m wrong. Anyway, after gathering all the evidence we should head outside and talk to the policewoman. Let’s get on it.

Turn to your left, select the Magnifying Glass from the inventory, and tap on Mr. Lavenza’s body to examine it. It seems that Mr. Lavenza was fatally wounded by a knife stab on the right side of his neck, but the killer proceeded with stabbing inflicting several additional wounds. Because of the brutality of the murder, Schmitz thinks that the murderer probably knew and hated the victim. Hmmm, this makes sense. Here, we will also get our first piece of evidence. So far so good, let’s move on.

With the Magnifying Glass selected tap on the tablecloth next to the body. It seems that the tablecloth was pulled down, I suspect this happened during the assault.

Using the Magnifying Glass tap on the drawer. It’s open, but nothing seems to be missing. However, Schmitz won’t touch it yet because she doesn’t want to disturb the crime scene, yet.

Next tap on the window that’s looking at the front yard. Schmitz will comment on how it has a very nice view. Could it be that somebody saw the murder from outside? I guess we will find out.

Well, that’s it for the reception room, let’s go back to the previous room and investigate it. Turn to the right and tap on the door to exit.

You will see that something is on the floor, next to the door. With Magnifying Glass selected, tap on it to examine. We can see that the teapot and teacups are broken. There is no furniture nearby on which Mrs. Lavenza could trip over and drop the teacups. So, she probably opened the door, saw the murder, and drop everything in shock and surprise. That theory makes sense. The broken teacups are our second piece of evidence, let’s continue the investigation.

There is nothing else of interest here, so let’s move on to the next room. Turn to the right and tap on the door to proceed.

Now, use the magnifying glass to examine the turned over chair with bloodstains on it. Hmm, I suspect that the chair was knocked during the chase, while the murderer was chasing Mrs. Lavenza, that is.

With that done, let’s move into the hall. Turn to the right and tap on the door.

Let’s first check the body. Tap on it while the Magnifying Glass is selected. It looks like Mrs. Lavenza was stabbed through the heart and died almost instantly. Well, that’s a much “cleaner” kill than the previous one, and this is our third piece of evidence. Was it just luck, or is our suspect a quick learner?

It looks like there are bloodstains on the front door. Select the Magnifying Glass and tap on the door to examine it. There is no sign of forced entry, so somebody let the suspect inside. Well, this confirms our suspicion that the murder knew Lavenzas. With that done, we have just collected the fourth piece of evidence. Let’s carry on.

It’s time to check the rooms on the other side. Tap on the door at the other side of the room (opposite to the door that leads to the reception room) to open it, and tap again to enter.

There is nothing of interest in here, so let’s proceed to the next room.

The windows are the only interesting thing in this room since the front yard can be clearly seen from here. Let’s proceed through the door into the next room.

We are now in the kitchen. Select the Magnifying Glass and tap on the calendar. It seems that list of visitors and kitchen supplies is well documented, but the visitor list for yesterday is missing since there were no servants there to record it.

By tapping on the tea kettle (with the Magnifying Glass selected) we will find out that Mrs. Lavenza herself had to prepare the tea yesterday since there were no servants. Well, it looks like she was bringing the tea to her husband and his guest (our suspect), so it’s possible that the murderer was an important person, probably a close friend of the family. I guess Mrs. Lavenza wouldn’t bother to prepare tea and serve it to some unimportant person.

Well, that’s it for the kitchen. Let’s get back to the hall. Go through the previous rooms until you reach the main hall.

I guess it’s now time to investigate the front yard. Tap on the front door to exit outside.

Once outside, look to your left. All of the trees in the garden have been finely trimmed, but you will notice that there is a hole cut out in one of them. Select the Magnifying Glass, and tap on the hole to examine it. It seems that someone has cut a hole in it, with some kind of a sharp object, most likely a knife. After examining the tree, the fifth piece of evidence will be added to the inventory.  

Now, sweep to your right until you see an empty fountain. You will notice that there are bloodstains on it. Let’s use the Magnifying Glass to closely examine those bloodstains. Upon closer examination, Schmitz concludes that our suspect must have used the water from the fountain to wash off the blood. The fountain is currently empty, but it probably it was probably functional yesterday. Also, our protagonist says that the murder couldn’t wash away the evidence, no matter how hard he tried. Well, if the story was happening in the present time, the detectives could use the UV light, to find out if there are bloodstains on nearby grass or on some of the servants. But that kind of technology wasn’t available two centuries ago, so we’ll have to do this the old-fashioned way. Anyway, after examining the fountain the sixth piece of evidence will be added to our inventory.

Now, we should go see the policewoman and turn over the evidence. She can be found in the middle of the garden. Tap on her to start the interaction.

After turning in the evidence we have successfully completed the first stage of investigation – Gathering Evidence. It is now time to move on to the second stage of the investigation which is Assume Action. Here we will try to reconstruct the actions of the suspect in chronological order, if possible.

Also, after turning in the evidence, several action cards have been added to our inventory. So, let’s make a to-do list:

Surprised (Action): Mrs. Lavenza drops the teacups after she saw something. We should find out what she saw.

Body (Action): How did the suspect attack Mr. Lavenza, and was there a struggle.

Murder (Action): Can be installed without further investigation.

Knife Mark (Action): The suspect cut/stabbed the tree, we should go back and examine it.

Bloodstains (Action): Look for more bloodstains in the mansion (we already found some on the turned over chair, so we better check it out, later)

Invite (Evidence?) – Well, the suspect was clearly a guest, but was there a list of visitors? We should check this.

Well, that’s a pretty long list, so let’s solve it step-by-step. Since we are already outside, let’s first check the tree. 

Select the “Knife Mark” action card and tap on the damaged tree. Well, Schmitz thinks that our suspect stabbed/slashed the tree before going inside. She thinks that Lavenzas might saw him from inside while he was stabbing at it, and wants to check out the windows. Well, this is flawed logic. If I saw somebody wielding a knife and using it to stab at the tree in my front yard, I definitely wouldn’t let him in. But, the chief inspector wants to check, so we will have to check the windows once we get inside the mansion.

But for now, let’s see what else we can find out outside. The next logical step would be to question the servants, so let’s do that.

Select the “Surprised” action card and tap on the Paula. She confirms that Mrs. Lavenza wasn’t a clumsy person, so something must have startled her, and that’s why she dropped the teacups. Well, that confirms our theory that Mrs. Lavenza opened the door, saw the suspect killing her husband, and dropped everything from her hands in horror. Let’s see what else will Paula tell us.

Select “Invite (Evidence)” from the inventory and tap on Paula, to question her about the list of visitors. Well, she usually writes down new entries in the guest list, but she was absent yesterday. Paula spends most of her time in the kitchen, so we should head there later and check out the list, because the suspect’s visit might be scheduled beforehand – although this is a long shot, in my opinion. There’s nothing else that Paula can tell us about other evidence/actions, so let’s now question Ben the butler.

Select the “Bloodstains” action card from the inventory and tap on Ben to initiate the dialogue. Well, Ben says he is very committed to his job, and that there were no bloodstains inside nor outside of the house. He always kept everything neat and clean, so all the bloodstains are from yesterday, the day of the murder. Well, not much help, we already presumed this. Let’s what else he can tell us.

Select the “Knife Mark” action card from the inventory and tap on Ben to start the dialogue. Ben claims that it’s impossible to see somebody in the rest area from inside the house because the trees are too dense – he knows this because he often uses this place during his break. He also says we should check the visibility ourselves from the kitchen since this window is the nearest one to the rest area.

We should probably do this and the guest list together since both of the tasks are located in the kitchen. As a matter of fact, let’s do that now.

Enter the mansion by tapping on the front door.

Once in there go through the room on the right, and proceed to the next room (the one before the kitchen).

Once you get in, select the “Knife Mark” action card from the inventory and tap on the right window. After looking through the window, the chief detective says it’s almost impossible to see someone hiding in the rest area from here. With this done, you have completed everything related to the infamous tree stabbing, and can now install the suspect’s shadow next to the tree.

NOTE: Although Ben said we should look through the kitchen window, I couldn’t interact with it. It looks like this card can be only used to interact with the window in the current room. Probably a minor mistake in story writing, no biggie.

Let’s continue our journey to the kitchen, once again, through multiple rooms. There and back again, several times during this mission (pun intended) – we’re struggling with a lot of doors and loading screens instead of hordes of orcs, but still… OK, let’s move on. Tap on the door to the right to enter into the kitchen.

Now that we finally reached the kitchen, let’s check the list of visitors. Select the “Invite” action card from the inventory and tap on the calendar, located to the left of the vases. As suspected, our suspect wasn’t on the guest list, since there were no servants to record his visit, and he didn’t schedule the visit beforehand. However, after completing this task our Invite action card is updated and we have to find out where did the guest went after entering into the mansion. My guess is he went straight into the reception room. 

Ok, with this task completed, let’s head back outside to install the first shadow in crime reconstruction next to the “stabbed tree”. You know the drill, go through the three doors until you reach the main hall, then tap on the front door to exit outside.

Once outside, select the “Knife Mark” action card from the inventory, and tap on the damaged tree to install the first shadow in crime reconstruction. Interestingly, Schmitz thinks that the suspect was practicing the stabbing on the tree, before going into the mansion, and that’s why it’s damaged. I think that he might have done it for a different reason. He might have cut a hole in a tree through which he can observe the inside of the house without being seen, and make sure that there was no one else insides except the Lavenzas. But that’s just a theory…

With this task completed, let’s head back into the house. Tap on the front door to enter.

Let’s now check out the main hall. There are bloodstains at the front door. Select the “Bloodstains” action card from the inventory and tap on the front door. Well, the Schmitz only comments that the suspect smeared the door with blood while trying to get out of the house after committing this hideous crime. Nothing that we didn’t already know.

Now, select the “Murder” action card and tap on Mrs. Lavenza’s body to install the second shadow in our crime reconstruction – it’s not the second in chronological order of events, just the second one that we installed.

Ok, let’s head toward the reception room. Tap on the door to your left to transition into the next room.

Here, we can see the aforementioned overturned chair with bloodstains on it. Select the “Bloodstains” action card from the inventory and tap on the chair. Just as we suspected, the suspect knocked over the chair while he was chasing Mrs. Lavenza, his second victim. He probably went through the front door and straight to the fountain to wash himself up after that.

With this task completed, we can now install another shadow of our crime reconstruction (the murder washing away the blood) near the fountain. But, let’s do that later, I would like to first finish up everything inside before going back outside.

Tap on the door two the left to proceed into the next room, and move on, go through another door on the left and into the reception room. Note that we can’t interact with broken teacups right now. We probably have to figure out exactly what happened in the reception room, before using the “Surprised” action card on the broken teacups.

Once in the reception room, select the “Invite” action card from the inventory and tap on the chair (next to the turned over one) to install our third shadow of the crime reconstruction (not third in chronological order of events).

Schmitz came to the same conclusion as we did. The suspect was certainly well known to the family because they let him in, the husband went with him into the reception room, while Mrs. Lavenza went to the kitchen to prepare some tea.

Now, select the “Body” action card (image of a hand holding a knife) from the inventory and tap on the tablecloth located below the table at the far left side of the room. As we suspected, the tablecloth was pulled down by Mr. Lavenza when he got stabbed. However, he couldn’t offer any resistance as he was completely distracted by something else when the murderer attacked. So, he definitely trusted this person (as suspected), but we now have to figure out what was our victim doing before he was attacked (that’s the instruction on the updated action card).

With the body action card selected, tap on the open drawer. The drawer is filled with orderly arranged documents, so it seems that our victim was looking for something in there, and not the killer – otherwise, the documents would be tossed around randomly, like in the previous case. Well, this is the moment that the suspect used to strike, attacking Mr. Lavenza from behind while he was distracted. With that done we installed the fourth shadow in our crime reconstruction.

OK, now select the “Surprised” action card and tap on Mr. Lavenza’s body. Well, as we suspected, Mrs. Lavenza open the door, saw the murder, dropped everything from her hands in horror, and started running, trying to get away from the murderer. We can now install the fifth shadow next to the broken teacups.

NOTE: After tapping on the body with the “Surprised” action card selected, Schmitz will comment that the crime could be clearly seen from the door that leads into the reception room – like this wasn’t already obvious. However, you won’t be able to install crime shadow on the teacups until you complete this step. 

Let’s now go back to the previous room and check out the broken teacups. Tap on the door on your right.     

Select the “Surprised” action card and tap on the broken teacups, near the door on the left side of the room.  Apparently, there is a footprint on the teacups, leading out of the reception room. This footprint certainly belongs to the killer, who went chasing after Mrs. Lavenza. With this task complete, we have installed the fifth shadow of our crime scene reconstruction. Only one more to go.

Well, there’s only one thing left to do now and that’s installing the shadow near the fountain in the front yard, so let’s do that. Head toward the main hall through the doors on the right. Once in the main hall, tap on the front door to exit outside.

Once you get to the front yard turn to the right until you see a fountain. Now, select the last action card from the inventory and tap on the part of the fountain that is covered in bloodstains. With this, we installed the sixth and final shadow of our crime scene investigation. Schmitz suspects that the killer might have also thrown the murder weapon somewhere close by after washing up at the fountain, and will dispatch the team to look for it.

Well, after installing all the shadows the only thing left to do now is report back to the policewoman, so let’s do that. Tap on the policewoman, located left of the fountain.

Now that the case reconstruction is over, it is time to inform everyone about our findings. The next part reconstruction of the case in chronological order of events, using the figure cards, just like in the previous stage. So, let’s do it.

The first thing our suspect did, after entering into the front yard, was to hide among densely planted trees and practice stabbing on one of them. So, select the card on which the figure looks like it stabbing at something, with the outstretched arm, while holding a knife. This card goes into the first slot.

After entering into the mansion, the suspect left with Mr. Lavenza to the reception room, while Mrs. Lavenza went to the kitchen to make them some tea. Select the figure sitting on the chair, and place it into the second slot – it represents our suspect sitting in the reception room.

After that, we know Mr. Lavenza was suddenly attacked from behind while he was searching for some documents in the drawer. We should now select the card at which the figure is wielding a knife, and using it to stab Mr. Lavenza in the neck, from behind. This card goes into the third slot.

After that, we know Mrs. Lavenza open the door, saw the murder, dropped everything from her hands, and started running away, towards the front door. So, the card with surprised Mrs. Lavenza goes into the fourth slot.

 

Our suspect gave chase, knocking over some furniture in the process, and caught up to her at the front door. Here, he stabbed her right through the heart, and she was dead before she hit the ground. The next card is the one with the figure stabbing Mrs. Lavenza through the heart, and it goes into the fifth slot.

Finally, the suspect ran through the front door (smearing it with blood), and into the front yard. Once there, he went to the fountain to wash himself up from all the blood. The card with bent over the figure, which looks like it’s washing its hands, goes into the sixth, final slot.

Well, that concludes our case reconstruction. Tap “OK” confirm.

After the “Success” message, tap “Exit” to proceed. The Schmitz will repeat the above described case reconstruction, adding that the suspect was well known to the family – as we already concluded a long time ago. However, the chief inspector is also convinced that the suspect is a strong and quick, young man. I really don’t understand why would she think that, since Mr. Lavenza was killed from behind, before he could offer any resistance, and terrified Mrs. Lavenza was only trying to run away, and probably couldn’t move very fast in that huge dress. Weird.

During this conversation, the police officer will come running, yelling how he found a small knife in the fountain. Well, here is our murder weapon. The next step in the investigation is to identify the suspect. The Art Knife will be added to your inventory.

Tap on the policewoman. Well, it seems we have to interrogate the servants, once again, to see if they know anything else.

Tap on Ben, the butler. Apparently, everything was nice and quiet in this home, except that one time when Ben heard a loud argument.

Let’s ask the first question “Was it family related?”. No, it wasn’t family related. Mr. Lavenza sometimes argues with Elizabeth (his daughter), but these are only mild arguments, nothing too serious.

Let’s tap on Ben again, and ask the other question “Or visitor related?”. Well, it looks like there was a heated argument between Mr. Lavenza and one of Elizabeth’s guests. Argument card will be added to the inventory.

Let’s see what Paula can tell us about this argument. Select the “Argument” card and tap on Pola, the maid. Elizabeth’s guest was Huxley, her lover, but her parents didn’t like him and didn’t approve of this relationship. Elizabeth went to the party yesterday, and was sad because she couldn’t see Huxley – they usually see each other every day.     

Let’s now see what Paula can tell us about the knife that was discovered in the fountain. Select the “Knife” card and tap on Pola.

It looks like the Lavenzas really like the artwork (as we could presume by looking at the interior of the mansion), and often hired artists. Huxley, Elizabeth’s lover, was hired several times recently, by the Lavnezas. Why they would hire him instead of some other artist if they didn’t approve of his relationship with their daughter is beyond me. However, since he was Elizabeth’s lover, and also hired on multiple occasions by the Lavenzas, Huxley was definitely well known to the family and would be welcomed as a quest. The argument with his future father-in-law does provide a motive. Hmmm, I don’t like this, it seems too simple. But, Schmitz is certain that he’s the murderer since all the evidence is pointing in his direction. So, off she goes with other police officers to arrest Huxley.

Arrested Huxley claims his innocent, and that he was drawing Bola hill yesterday. However, one knife is missing from the kit, and our murder weapon fits perfectly into the empty slot. Huxley still claims he’s innocent, but chief inspector Schmitz will hear none of it. Even though all the evidence points in his direction, I don’t think Huskley was the killer. I think somebody used him as a scapegoat, and probably murdered Lavenzas was for some other reasons. Mr. Lavenza was looking at the documents at the time of the attack, so he might have been killed by one of his business partners. But that’s only guessing, and we will never know.

Huxley’s trial didn’t go smoothly, in spite of overwhelming evidence against him. Somehow, he managed to hire one of the most prominent lawyers, even though he wasn’t considered to be a wealthy person. Could it be that Elizabeth paid for the lawyer because she believed her lover was innocent? Or was it the real murderer that paid for the lawyer, to ensure that Huskley will be convicted? Regardless, he was convicted eventually and sentenced to death. The sentence was carried out in the town square, at that’s how Huxley’s life ended. That’s also the end of this stage of the game.  

In the next stage, we will be playing as Schmitz, again as she solves another crime, which is apparently related to the previous two investigations. Join us in the next stage of the Walkthrough for Frankenstein Room ESC, to see what the future holds for our chief detective, and possibly find out a bit more about Huxley’s case.

Thank you for reading.