Week 3/Mailing 3

I think I'm starting to understand the feeling of isolation that Jack Torrance felt in "The Shining" after staying in The Overlook Hotel throughout the winter. While I'm not snowed in here at Veilwood, the loneliness and the lack of human contact is starting to take its toll. Jack, of course, had a wife to keep him company. I just have ghosts, not all of which are friendly. He went insane. Will I do the same?

I did get some interesting results by using the Ovilus during week 3. Something caused the Ovilus to split out a bunch of different readings, listing rooms on the bottom floor of Veilwood. By putting my finger on the map and tracing the path of the rooms mentioned, I obtained a message that read: look in ER

Obviously, there is only one place on the map that those letters correspond to and that is the: exam room.

I have to admit I wasn't prepared to find that book there. The implications of what it means are heavy to say the least. Based on what I learned, Veilwood wasn't the cheeriest of places when it was built. To dabble with the occult on top of that seems like a recipe for disaster. I have no doubt that the sanitorium is haunted. So many tortured souls have died here that it seems a given. However, I think back to that presence that attacked me, and I wonder if this might have been brought here by the owner of that spell book. But to what end? I have taken precautions against that sort of evil moving forward, and I hope that is my only exposure to that level of darkness.

We also had to gain access to Franklin Betts' computer. In order to do that we had to learn how to synthesize Neuroquel using the directions he left behind. This Neuroquel drug is at the heart of this mystery. I'm sure of it. I've read that it was developed for coma patients. But, I have also seen where it worked as an anti-psychotic. Based on the rushed nature of the trials, I am not so sure that this drug didn't have multiple applications, and Veilwood was ground zero for human trials to see just how many maladies it could cure or at least improve.

Basically in order to satisfy all the requirements for each of the components for the Neuroquel drug here is the way this all works out:

Axiom: green, solid, 20c

Boreal: blue, liquid, 0c

Celsius: red, gel, 80c

Delta: clear, gas, -20c

This means that the computer password is: clearbluegreenred

Then, we get to Nancy's note. According to what she tells us, the code-breaker ghost's full name is the key. That name is found on The Dead Pool sheet of names from mailing 2: Arlo Hunt

If we take only the columns on the back of her note where the top letters spell out his full name, we get his message that reads: you should look into the name Morris cook. tick tock does this for him. the time each watch stops is significant. tick tock is not a patient that is xx.

By XX, I take that to refer to anyone who is female (given that women have XX chromosomes).

Next, I did a little searching for our code-breaker ghost and I found a picture of him back in his glory days. See below.

Arlo seems like a guy that fights for the right things and is someone you want in your corner. He has been very helpful thus far, and I have no reason to doubt that he won't pop up again at some point. To say that he is an American hero is an understatement, both for his service in WW2 and for his help solving this series of murders and unraveling this mystery.

Nancy, of course, also gives us another piece of her cipher. At this point, we have about half of the alphabet covered.

I also sent a list of the first 7 victims who were murdered by Tick Tock. As nearly as I can tell, there were 8 victims in all (Janet Watkins was the last).

I can say safely at this point that Frederic LeClerq, Carter Ennis, and Franklin Betts all knew everyone on the victims list. As nearly as I can tell, LeClerq had a tattoo and Franklin Betts did not (although he knew the symbol was a form of protection, I think).