The mystery continues in the second episode of Duskwood.
Duskwood Episode Two
Episode 2 begins with Jessy’s group chat. Jessy will say that she can’t bring herself to add Thomas and Lilly – whoever she is – to the conversation as you may potentially be dealing with Hannah’s death.
Cleo will attack Jessy by saying that she hasn’t really done much to help with Hannah’s disappearance so far. What you say here will affect who you’ll side with – and consequently who will be more helpful and useful to you later. I chose to side with Jessy on this one.
Because I sided with Jessy, she messaged me privately thanking me for my support, and venting that Cleo is very hard to please. I suppose you’ll get a similar message from Cleo if you side with her but remember: there’s no way to rewind choices without restarting the whole game.
Return to the group chat. Cleo says that she’ll take on the burden of passing the grim news to Lilly – and you have the option of volunteering to tell Thomas or shirking the responsibility. Since I’m trying to get into everyone’s good graces, I volunteered. You can choose to either give him more details – the body is female – or go crazy and tell him you’re sorry for his loss. All I told him was that they found a body.
Go back to the group chat. Dan will voice his VERY LOUD opinion that Thomas is the culprit, saying that him leaving immediately after getting the news that a body was found is suspicious – grief notwithstanding. I sided with Thomas here, telling Dan that I don’t think Thomas’ behavior is strange.
The Blurred File
Once again, it’s time for file decryption. Finish decrypting one set (3 pips) to get a message from the hacker.
The hacker will announce the startling news: a body has been found! You can deflate them by saying you already know, as well as who told you (which is what I did). The hacker will advise keeping some of the group close to you as this will reveal more information as you go. Finally, they’ll ask about the cat picture you sent back in episode 1, asking if you got it from her phone. You can just say yes or ask about it.
You need two more minigame pips to continue the story. Get matching. You’ll decrypt a blurred image of what looks to be a prescription or receipt of medical services. The hacker will ask you to give them time to fix it up.
What Was Cleo Doing?
Switch to Jessy’s private chat. She’ll tell you that she saw Cleo sneaking around in the junkyard yesterday. When Jessy went to confront Cleo, Cleo acted like she just dropped by to visit – despite being, in Jessy’s words, “close to breaking in”. Jessy will ask for your help getting to the bottom of this mini-mystery, and you can choose to agree or refuse. Seeing as I want to get on Jessy’s good side, I agreed.
Decryption time! You need to solve two more pips.
Word on the Street
Cleo will announce in the group chat that she’s managed to get ahold of Lilly. Go ahead and greet Lilly when she enters to start getting chummy with her.
Cleo will message you privately, saying that she heard that you already got a lot of information from both Thomas and Jessy, and you can state that you think Jessy is a bit naïve to get some brownie points with Cleo. Cleo will then volunteer to answer some questions you may have about Hannah. Specifically, you could ask about Hannah’s siblings, if she had any enemies, or if it’s possible that Hannah simply ran away.
I asked if it was possible that Hannah simply ran away, and Cleo will say that it’s very unlikely as things were going great for Hannah. This scenario also conflicts with the hacker (if you trust them) who says they witnessed the kidnapping.
If you ask about siblings, Cleo will tell you that Lilly is Hannah’s sister, which is why someone had to seek her out for the news about the body. Hannah has no other siblings.
Cleo is also 100% positive that Hannah has no enemies, and that no one would want her gone.
After this exchange, you can confront Cleo about the alleged break-in attempt at the junkyard. I chose not to pursue that thread for now, hoping for a better option to open the topic down the line.
Once you’re done, Cleo will say that she’s heading downtown to find people who might have seen Hannah before her disappearance. This adds three more persons of interest to our case:
- Ms. Walter, the motel owner
- Mrs. Sully, the local gossip
- Phil Hawkins, the owner of the Aurora bar
Cleo will note that the bar isn’t open yet. I suggested she talk to Mrs. Sully first, as there will likely be grains of truth in what she says.
Trust No One
Decryption time! You need 3 more pips. Clearing this decryption gets you a black and white picture of Hannah, which will be sent to the hacker.
Spy mode will activate, so go snoop on Richy and Jessy’s private conversation. Richy will ask Jessy why she’s giving you so much information and will tell her he has something to reveal about you – but he gets cut off by needing to go to the office.
Switch back to the hacker, who’s also tapped into the private conversation. They’ll ask you what you think Richy is going to tell Jessy, which you can point out is strange as Richy has never interacted with you before. Most likely, it’s going to be about why he doesn’t trust you. Regardless, you can affirm your commitment to not fully trust anyone and continue cracking the case.
Get ready for more decryption.
Cleo’s Findings
Cleo returns from speaking with Mrs. Sully, and as luck would have it, Mrs. Sully actually saw Hannah before she disappeared. Namely, Hannah was sitting on the patio of the Rainbow Café after running out of the pharmacy. Mrs. Sully also noted that Hannah was particularly pale-faced that day. Cleo suggests that finding out what scared Hannah is vital to unearthing the truth of her disappearance. Fortunately for us, we already have something to clue us in. All we need to do is wait for our friendly neighborhood hacker to pull through.
Cleo will go to the next location you didn’t pick, in my case the motel. Ms. Walter will be missing, and Cleo will say that Lilly used to work at the motel, and that Ms. Walter hasn’t found a replacement for her yet. However, Alfie, Ms. Walter’s mentally handicapped son, is playing in the yard, so I suggested Cleo talk to him.
Alfie’s testimony reveals that Hannah was taken into the woods by a man without a face.
While it’s likely that our suspect is now a male with a mask, Cleo will tell you that one of Duskwood’s urban legends is the faceless man. It’s possible that our kidnapper is trying to reenact that story. Cleo will tell you to talk to Jessy about the faceless man.
The Man Without a Face
Return to Jessy to learn more about the faceless man.
Jessy will caution you that it’s possible that Alfie isn’t a reliable witness as she’s worked as his babysitter a few times. While I agreed with Jessy here, Alfie’s story may still have some truths in it, so it’s important I pursue it to the end.
Jessy will create a new group chat with herself, you, and Richy, called Legends of Duskwood. However, it’s decryption time! You need two pips to continue.
Once you’re done with the infernal matching game, head back to the group chat where Richy will greet everyone. Richy will ask what’s up – and I replied I wanted to know about urban legends in general, as I don’t exactly trust Richy at this point. Richy will also say that he doesn’t feel right about Cleo talking to Alfie in general, and I assuaged him by saying that this is still a very vague lead.
Richy will note that Jessy is the one who should tell the story, as she’s the horror queen. Jessy will counter that Richy grew up in Duskwood, so he should know about the faceless man more intimately. However, Richy will say that urban legends are just that – stories. Thus, the task falls onto Jessy.
The story of the faceless man is this: he lives in the deep forest and roams the town’s streets at night. The faceless man looks for the biggest sinners in Duskwood and marks their doors with the Sign of the Raven. And on the first new moon of each year, he descends and takes everyone in those buildings – innocent or guilty – into the forest, from which they never return.
While Richy does bring up a valid point, namely “what does this have to do with Hannah’s disappearance”, it’s possible that the kidnapper is using the urban legend as a smokescreen. Jessy then says she’ll need to cut the conversation short, as a customer is coming in.
Decryption time! Clear some pips to get a picture of a cave in the woods.
The Smell
Cleo will message you privately soon after, saying that she can’t get a particular story about Alfie out of her head.
The story goes as such: sometime last year, when Lilly was still working at the motel, a guest complained to her of a foul smell in his room. Lilly went into the room but smelled nothing. Just to keep the customer happy though, she gave him a new room.
When Lilly returned to the first room the next day, she noticed something was off. The foul smell was in the air, but she couldn’t find where it was coming from. Lilly reported the incident to Ms. Walter, who passed it along to Old Gray, the motel’s janitor. A few hours later, Old Gray left the room, nodding to Lilly that the problem was taken care of. Curious as to what was causing the smell, Lilly returned to the room and found a black plastic bag. Inside it was the corpse of Mr. Featherly, Alfie’s canary, and the source of the smell.
Does this cast doubt on Alfie’s story? We’ll see.
Snoop in on Dan and Lilly’s private conversation to discover that Dan is going to Lilly’s house that night.
Switch to a private conversation with Jessy, where she’ll ask what you think about the hacker. Jessy will say that while she finds him (or her) creepy, she believes that ultimately, the hacker isn’t the kidnapper. She’ll also note that she had a conversation with her friends about whether they trust you.
Do not blow your cover and say that you know. I chose to play dumb at this point. Remember – being able to listen in on private conversations is a huge boon and showing your hand now is unwise.
As the conversation continues, Jessy will reveal that Richy believes the hacker is one of the people in the friend group.
It is once again time to decrypt.
Secret Dealings
Snoop in on the private conversation between the missing Thomas and Dan. Dan will angrily ask Thomas where he’s been, but Thomas will ignore all that and ask Dan if he’s holding up his end of the deal, which Dan says he is. Dan also tells Thomas “Don’t make me regret this”.
Switch to the hacker. Before you can consider exactly what Thomas and Dan’s deal is, you’ll get access to another private conversation, bringing a new person of interest into play – Poke. Poke will confirm a time and place for what’s probably a delivery (worth $350) and note that Dan is paranoid as always. Poke will also express sympathy for Hannah’s disappearance.
To me, this seems like it could be Dan’s weed dealer – at best – but that’s just me. At least the hacker agreed with me. However, you need to be sure it’s something not related to the case. You’ll need to check this Poke person to ensure that whatever Dan is buying is something completely unrelated to Hannah’s disappearance. The hacker will work for a while to get his number.
And for us, that means that yes, it’s sadly time to match again.
The Pharmacy Receipt
Instead of working on getting Poke’s number, the hacker has been doing something else. They’ll send you their work on the pharmacy receipt you got from Hannah’s phone.
So far, the hacker’s managed to decipher that Hannah bought two bags of SSRIs. Hannah also went out of her way to take a picture of the receipt; the most logical conclusion is that she wanted to show it to somebody.
A quick search on the real-life internet should show you that SSRIs are antidepressants. However, the hacker claims that Hannah was not depressed. This brings up an interesting question: does the hacker know Hannah personally enough to make that claim?
Go get some more progress pips.
What Cleo Found
You’ll unlock the last file for episode 2, a text document that seems to be Hannah jotting down her thoughts. Send it to the hacker.
Cleo will message you to say she’s outside Hannah’s apartment, and that she should look around as there might be some clues to her disappearance. Break-in time!
Accept Cleo’s call and watch it to the end. Make sure to disconnect once it’s done.
What Have We Learned?
Here’s a short summary of what we learned in episode 2.
- An unidentified female body was found.
- Cleo is good at getting into places she shouldn’t.
- Hannah was seen in town, on the patio of the Rainbow Café after running out of the pharmacy.
- Alfie, the motel owner’s mentally handicapped son, claims he saw Hannah being dragged into the woods by a faceless man.
- The faceless man is one of Duskwood’s urban legends.
- Jessy did not grow up in Duskwood, Richy did.
- Richy believes the hacker is somebody in the friend group.
- Thomas and Dan have a secret agreement.
- Dan is buying things from a person called Poke. Whatever it is, it seems to be contraband.
- Hannah has a receipt for 2 bags of antidepressants in her phone.
- Hannah has what looks like a dialogue entry noting that things are going bad for her.
- The hacker claims Hannah isn’t depressed – do they know Hannah personally?
- Someone else broke into Hannah’s apartment while Cleo was there.
The deeper into the mystery you go, the less you seem to know. Onwards to episode 3!