Do we stay, or do we go? Let’s find out in Duskwood’s 5th episode.
Duskwood Episode Five
Jessy immediately calls Lilly out on her actions. And pretty much everyone follows suit. I say go ahead, let the police do what they want.
More importantly, during her rant, Lilly will drop an important name: Jake, which she claims is the hacker’s name. You’ll also get a new contact on your phone – people will start to heckle you because of Lilly’s video.
After Lilly goes off, you’ll need to discuss your options with the rest of the group. Richy suggests acting quickly before the people of Duskwood pick up on the video and will suggest getting the hacker to help you. Unfortunately, our tech-savvy friend is still AWOL, but shoot them a message anyway.
You’ll get more hecklers. Dan will muse that maybe Jake took off. Jessy will suggest mass reporting the video – but what will five reports do? There’s nothing you can do until Jake returns.
Before the next part, snoop in on Jessy and Richy’s DMs. Jessy will ask if she can leave a little earlier, as she wants to do something for you.
Video B-Gone
Switch to the Legends of Duskwood group chat. Richy will inform you that Alfie has calmed down, thanks to Richy giving him a mug. Which he smashed. Kids will be kids. Alfie and Gray reveal the reason why Thomas was so distraught, not that it’s anything new for us – namely, the story of Hannah being taken away by the faceless man.
The hacker will finally return, and you can tell them about the video. They say they’ll take care of it, and they’ve always been reliable before.
Switch back to the whole group chat. Cleo will say she tried changing Lilly’s mind but was unsurprisingly unsuccessful. Thomas will confirm that yes, the video is gone. But the damage is done.
Dan will also talk about the kind of power the hacker has. After all, being able to take a video down that quickly is no small feat. He’ll warn you, and everyone else, to stay away from the hacker as much as possible.
Switch back to the hacker. Thank them for removing the video but confront them about how they took it down. Once again, they’ll fall back on “I’ll tell you in due time” but mention their supposed name to get a reaction.
The hacker will come clean (probably) – they’re wanted by the government, and now that their name is out, they’ll need to protect themselves. And because they’ll be on the run, they have to disconnect from your private chats. No more snooping for them!
One more thing before you go: your lead on Jennifer. The hacker will tell you to pick one person among the five – Thomas, Cleo, Jessy, Richy, and Dan – to tell you about Hannah’s past. The hacker will also mention that you must trust this person.
Dan’s My Man
I decided to speak to Dan; he’s been the most forthright of all the characters here – after we teased him out of his shell, of course. He’s also the one I believe to have the least reason to lie about things.
Dan will mention that we’re asking very strange questions, but he’ll give us answers nonetheless.
Jennifer was the name of a girl that was found dead in the forest, over 10 years ago. As far as anyone knows, the killer was never caught, and the topic was quickly swept under the rug. Maybe nobody wanted to entertain the notion that they were living next to a killer. Maybe no one cared because Jennifer wasn’t from Duskwood.
Dan also asked why him; the simple answer is that I trust him the most. This is probably going to be an important factor later.
A Grim Scenario
Richy will return to the Legends of Duskwood group chat. He’ll mention that he and Jessy spoke about Thomas and that Richy doesn’t want to get involved in Thomas and Alfie’s business. Jessy, on the other hand, wants to confront Thomas about what he did, saying that he “acted like a complete idiot”. It’s up to you whose advice you’ll follow.
Talk to the two about the harassment you’ve been getting. And by “harassment”, I mean the threatening videos from the unknown caller. Jessy will make an interesting point – what if the unknown caller is someone in the group? After all, you haven’t given out your number to anyone else, so the only people who had it are the ones Hannah sent it to, AKA the friend group.
There Was An Attempt
You’ll get another picture of Hannah. Send it to the hacker. For some reason, the place she’s in seems familiar.
Go to the group chat, where Dan will ask everyone to come online. Lilly won’t come (of course) and Cleo is still at the Gate of Hope – I just said she was busy.
Dan will claim that the accident was not his fault. While he did drink a few whiskeys at the Black Swan, it wasn’t the alcohol that did him in. Rather, someone cut his brakes. And while the rest of the group was incredulous, I chose to believe him. Nobody else does.
Grill Dan about the event. Dan will say that his car has never had brake problems before, only Jessy knew he would be at the Black Swan, and that he didn’t see anyone near his car as the parking lot was dark. If you want to keep Dan’s relationship points up, avoid asking about the alcohol. Dan will ask Richy to examine what’s left of his car to see if there’s anything off about it before logging off.
Dan will mention to Jessy in their DMs that tampering was the reason the cops went to visit him in the hospital. Finally, Dan messaged me that he remembers the last name of Jennifer – it’s Jennifer Manson. So much for my J.H. theory.
Enemies in the Shadows
Cleo will contact you with bad news: the search is canceled. Miranda received a threatening letter that claimed something terrible would happen if someone set foot in the forest. On one hand, that’s a big setback. On the other, we now know for certain that the unknown caller wants us out of the forest at all costs.
Our prime suspect didn’t stop at that, though. They also included pictures of Cleo taken without her knowledge.
Cleo will also reveal that this isn’t the first time Miranda received such letters. However, this one gave her pause because of the pictures of Cleo. Cleo will say that she’ll stay behind to brief her mom on what’s been going on. She’ll also ask you a favor – tell the others that the search has been canceled.
Fill the rest of the group in, and you can also mention that the letter contained photos of Cleo. Thomas will leave to call Hannah’s parents, while Dan will jump in later and voice what we already know.
Jessy will DM you afterwards Reassure her that you’re here to find Hannah, or that you became friends. Jessy will also mention that while Jake is incredibly suspicious, she can’t jump to conclusions. Like Lilly did.
She’ll then ask about Jake. I volunteered information about him as we’re all in this together now. Namely, I told her that Jake can access Hannah’s cloud, that he’s (most likely) not from Duskwood, and that he’s a wanted man. And while Jessy isn’t entirely sure Jake is guilty, his abilities give her pause. The most important point is the number texted to Thomas at the beginning of the mystery – did Jake delete the message?
Making Some Calls
Go to Dan and Thomas’ DMs. Look at the picture if you want.
Switch back to the hacker. Brief him on what’s happened so far: Dan’s cut brakes, the canceled forest search, and Jennifer’s last name. When talking about Jennifer, you’ll need to supply more details; be sure to give the correct version of events, which are that Jennifer Manson, not native to Duskwood, was found dead in the forest over 10 years ago and that the killer was never found.
Finally, I told Jake that people were getting upset with him and that he’s still a suspect in their eyes.
It’s the hacker’s turn to process the information. They’ll ask who you got Jennifer Manson’s name from – in my case, Dan – and reveal that there is no person named Jennifer Manson. I don’t think Dan would have any reason to lie about that, so why is there a cover-up?
They’ve got some good news, too. The police now have a log of Hannah’s calls on the day that she vanished. Thanks to Jake, we have those logs too. Our next step is to match the numbers to people we already know. We’re not here to make conversation, so just find out who owns which number. Jake will request we start from the top.
22906 will get us an answering machine in Jessy’s voice. It’s the number of Roger’s Garage. Jessy will confirm this by DMing you afterward. She’ll say that Hannah’s car was in the garage on that day, and Richy can fill in the blanks about why the car was there.
The hacker will message: 16035, the longest call, but didn’t respond.
Richy will DM the call. He’ll mention that his number should be on that list and that he called Hannah to tell her her car was ready. Richy will also volunteer to answer any questions you have, so here’s the information I got:
- Hannah’s car had a bad oil pan.
- There was nothing different about Hannah that day.
- Richy doesn’t know where Hannah went after she left.
- Jessy had a day off, so she didn’t see any of this.
- Richy thinks he might have been the last person to physically see Hannah.
Doesn’t Richy seem a little too prepared with his answers?
The hacker will message again. 73085 is Thomas’ number. The hacker will ask you to speak with Thomas about Hannah’s call. Just for good measure, I dialed the second number: 95042, and got no answer. I presume that’s Richy’s number.
Shoot Thomas a message – he’ll be back later. You’ll instead get another heckler. Dan will also send his image to Richy.
Thomas’ Story
Thomas will reply to your message. Get to the point and tell him it’s about his call to Hannah before she vanished. Thomas will go off on a tangent here, pointing out that he feels like he’s being singled out as the suspect. You can assuage his fears or remain neutral – I chose the latter.
Thomas will tell his side of the story, which clashes with Richy’s claim that there was nothing wrong with her. The verbatim dialogue goes as follows, with my choices included.
Thomas: From one day to the other Hannah just changed so much.
Thomas: She was always lost in her thoughts, didn’t have time for me anymore and refused to tell me what was wrong with her.
Player: Out of nowhere?
T: Yes. Out of nowhere.
T: Of course I wanted to confront her about it.
T: I just went over to her place, but she wasn’t there. So I waited for her in her apartment all day.
P: Go on.
T: While I was waiting many different scenarios were going through my head and I really thought that I was prepared for anything.
T: I mainly wanted to tell her that she could talk to me. That we could overcome anything as long as we were together.
T: When she finally came back home she didn’t even want to tell me where she’d been all day.
P: Okay, that is really strange.
T: Mhm.
T: It was extremely difficult, but I tried to ignore it at first.
T: I thought it would be a good start, if I began the conversation by telling her why I came there in the first place.
T: That I was there for her. That she could talk to me.
T: That I would be willing to change for her.
P: Change? So you thought it was all your fault?
T: I just wanted her to know, that if it was because of me, I would be willing to change my ways.
T: But the words didn’t even really get through to her.
P: What was it that captured her attention?
T: Nothing.
T: She simply took a seat on the couch and proceeded to look right through me.
T: That’s when I got angry. And desperate.
T: Well, and then I thought that the only thing I could do was to give her back the keys to her apartment.
P: You wanted to make a statement.
T: I am not sure what I wanted.
T: I guess it was something like that, yes.
T: Anyway, then I put the key into her purse.
T: And that’s when I found a bracelet.
P: Really, a bracelet?
T: Yes.
T: But before I could take a closer look at it, Hannah suddenly appeared next to me and ripped it out of my hand.
T: So I asked who gave her the bracelet and she responded.
P: It’s okay, take your time.
T: Thanks.
T: All of these memories are coming back to the surface.
T: Hannah is the most important thing in the world to me.
T: And I just feel so incredibly powerless.
P: That has to be totally awful.
T: Yes. Thank you for trying to see my point of view.
T: Hannah didn’t tell me who gave her the bracelet.
T: It was like a knife to my heart.
T: And that’s when I left the apartment.
There we have it. The purported huge argument between Thomas and Hannah from way back did not cause them to break up, and Thomas knew about the bracelet – which is why he took it from Hannah’s apartment back in chapter 2. And finally, we’ll get a picture of the bracelet which has been a thorn in our side for so long now.
You can point out that Jessy’s name matches the bracelet, but Thomas will affirm that he doesn’t think she did it (and neither do I, for that matter). Thomas is convinced that J.H. is a secret lover. It’s plausible, but I don’t think that’s the case here – Hannah has so much dirty laundry.
Note that according to Thomas, all this happened around 2 weeks ago. The reason he called Hannah that day was to apologize. Hannah picked up, and while she was open to talking, she said that Thomas “would have to be patient”.
One more thing. Is it a coincidence that J.H. could also mean Jake somebody? You’ll need to vet your frenemy on this one – find out his last name. Good luck.
Motion Detected
Return to Jake and send him the picture of the bracelet. Mention Thomas’ story of how Hannah’s behavior suddenly changed. Correction: bombard his inbox with your findings.
Once that’s done, do your decryption. You’ll get a video from Hannah’s phone. To be more precise, it’s security camera footage taken at 1 am. Brr.
The Beginning
Switch to your DMs with Jessy. She’ll be signing off work and will mention she has a surprise for us. Unfortunately, we need the multimedia pack to partake in it. Aww.
Dan will send his image to Cleo. Cleo will not be amused. And she’ll mention not to send it to Thomas. Oops. Dan will also send us the picture. Remember – it’s our first time seeing this, so act appropriately, yeah?
You’ll get another heckler. And strangely, you can input text here. I wonder if there’s an easter egg I don’t know about.
Go back to Jessy and tell her you have lots of news. Start by sending her a picture of the bracelet. Now that she’s had a look at it, she’ll say it’s familiar. It was in the window of the Duskwood pawn shop.
Your conversation will be interrupted by Phil messaging Jessy. Snoop in to discover that Cleo and Thomas were caught on Phil’s security camera. They’d better have a good explanation for this, or Phil will call the cops.
So what’s inside the basement? Nothing, according to Jessy. Drinks, spare chairs, and the usual extra equipment any establishment has. So why were Cleo and Thomas down there?
Jessy will get a bad feeling and will ask to call you. Pick up the phone.
What Have We Learned?
Things are quickly becoming more dangerous for our friends. Let’s go over the evidence to make sure that when the time goes, we know who’s behind all this.
Personal Information and Relationships
- According to Lilly, the hacker’s name is Jake.
- Jake is wanted by the government.
- Jake no longer has access to your chat log.
- Dan claims his accident wasn’t because of drunk driving, but because someone cut his brakes.
- Miranda, Cleo’s mom, called off the forest search because of a threatening letter and pictures of Cleo.
- Jennifer Manson was found dead in the forest over 10 years ago. The case was never solved.
- Hannah made 5 calls on the day of her disappearance.
- Hannah’s car was in Roger’s Garage on the day of the disappearance. Richy says this was because of a broken oil pan.
Mysteries Solved
- The big fight between Thomas and Hannah happened around 2 weeks ago.
- Jennifer’s last name is Manson.
Mysteries That Remain
- Were Dan’s brakes really cut?
- What are Cleo and Thomas hoping to find in Phil’s basement?
- Why does Jennifer Manson not exist in any records?
- Who is lying about Hannah’s change in attitude – Thomas, or Richy?
- Who owns the J.H. bracelet, and why was it in a pawn shop?
Desperate Times
Our investigation is starting to have dire consequences. But there’s no backing down now. It’s time to continue the mystery in Duskwood’s episode 6!