C-RTD04 (Mar 20, 1996)
Puzzle
“Be on guard, ruff tax season in Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach.”
Research | 1 Word
Clue
Hover over the clues if you require!
Clue 1: What do the words 'guard' and 'ruff' imply?
Clue 2: You're looking for a dog breed that originated in Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach.
Clue 3: A dog breed that's to do with a certain tax collector from that region, more specifically.
Answer and Explanation
Answer: Dobermann
Explanation: The Dobermann breed of dog (from 'ruff') originated from Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach in Germany, by a tax collector who wanted to guard himself when travelling through bandit-infested regions.
Summary of Receipt
Summary
Transcript
RECEIPT #004
FILED UNDER: CAFE-RTD
DATE: 3/20/96
EMPLOYEE #17
Resurrecting Madeline Saturn? That’s impossible. For more reasons than I can probably list here. Off the top of my head? There’s no body. The graveyard the Owner set up in the back is symbolic—not literal. The tombstones are just there to act as solemn reminders to sip—not chug—the coffee we brew. Symbolic monuments aside—there were quite literally no bodies left. Now, I can’t claim to know much about the forbidden art of Necromancy, but I would guess a body is needed. Necromancy, after all, is the process of undoing the nature of the Otherside. You can’t jam your demonic soul into just any old vessel—you would need your original body to do so.
Well, we now know the limitations of the veil, I suppose. As for my efforts, I managed to get a hold of “the Dobermann” Solomon Langley through some rather obscure connections. The trouble with getting in touch with a witch of Belphegor is that they tend to spend their time in the Ouroboros, a plane that is famously cut off from all others. As luck would have it, Solomon Langley was stateside, so I was able to have a small sit down with him. However, he kept his cards rather close to his chest in regard to the actual Sableification process. I suppose I can’t blame him, as it has caused enough turmoil in his family already.
I gleaned from him that Mrs. Umbra and Mrs. Aka are either faking Augustine’s Sableification or Umbra is a greater threat than we originally believed. To initiate the process of Sableification, one needs a very rare, very illegal substance. Illegal in the eyes of the Court of Angels, mind you. Universally prohibited. It is also a very time-sensitive substance. At most, it can stay fresh for two months. That is to say, Umbra couldn’t have had a stockpile of it if he used it to turn Augustine into a shadow. He would’ve had to have had some way of getting more. Solomon expressed to me the steep price he paid to get his hands on some years ago—a price Umbra likely couldn’t pay more than once. So, Occam’s Razor: they are faking it. Somehow. I suppose that is the next thread to pull at.