The Guest

7:58 a.m., the reception phone at the Romantik Hotel Knippschild rings. Police inspector Ferdinand Berlet is on the line to report the discovery of a corpse who was carrying a hotel room key. The body was found by a pedestrian early in the morning. At around 8:45 a.m., the homicide squad arrives at the hotel and opens the stranger’s room. It appears to be empty except for a backpack, a piece of paper, and a cryptex roll. Officers suspect these items may have been left behind intentionally. The inscription on the note also reinforces this assumption: “Now you are one of us. Disobedience or flight will be punished by death.” One thing is clear: the death of the unknown is no coincidence! Is this about much more? Maybe even a dangerous secret society from which the stranger was on the run? Unfortunately, the police have so far been unsuccessful in trying to open the cryptex roll. You are aware that opening it by force would destroy the contents and thus the only possible lead to the murderer. There is nothing left but to solve the puzzle. Help the police solve the mystery and establish contact with the secret society. I wish you success!