Mystery Foundry
The Lantern in the Snow case file on a chalet table by lantern light, the first envelope among a newspaper, a map, a blue floor plan and photographs

Case file AL-01

The Lantern in the Snow

New Year's Eve, 1984. Five old friends, one snowbound Swiss chalet, and a lantern on the mountain that nobody can explain. By dawn, one of them is lying dead in the snow.

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Players
2–6
Time
150–180 minutes
Difficulty
hard
Age
18+

What’s in the file

  • 3 envelopes, opened one at a time
  • 27 papers: reports, letters, statements and photographs
  • About 35 pages to print at home, on A4 or US Letter
  • Hints and the full solution, read on screen

Inside the envelopes

  1. Envelope OneThe Lantern Girl10 papers
    • Briefing letter
    • Crime-scene photograph
    • Police report
    • Evidence photographs
    • Floor plan
    • Map
    • Coded notebook
    • Witness statements
    • Diary pages
    • Postcard
  2. Envelope TwoWho Walked with the Lantern?7 papers
    • Police report
    • Evidence photographs
    • Fingerprint card
    • Torn paper to fit together
    • Medical report
    • Witness statements
    • Newspaper
  3. Envelope ThreeThe Laboratory10 papers
    • Investigator's note
    • Medical report
    • Inventory
    • Receipts and tickets
    • Witness statements × 2
    • Logbook pages
    • Tape log
    • Photograph
    • Timeline sheet

On New Year's morning 1985, Rupert Hale was found frozen beside a wayside shrine below Chalet Bergruh in the Swiss Alps, where he had brought back four old friends from the ski season of 1974–75. His body has come home to England, and H.M. Coroner has summoned you as the jury. The Swiss police file, translated for the court, is in your hands: decide how Rupert Hale came by his death.

Content: One death off the page, no gore; drinking, an affair and mild swearing

From the file

Hold the lens over a page to read it; pull a picture and it swings on its thread.Tap a page to put the lens on it, and drag the lens to read.

The Morning Courier, 2 January 1985: a City broker found dead below a Swiss chalet
A map of Oberfirn and the Bergruh slope, with its footpaths and landmarks
A blueprint of the chalet's ground and first floors

Written and illustrated with the help of AI tools, from our own story, prompts and edits, and checked by us.