Stormrider InvisiClues

InvisiClues for Death on the Stormrider by Daniel M. Stelzer

Click a section heading to show or hide its contents. To show a clue after opening a question, hover your mouse over the gray box. The text should appear on top of it. You can also highlight the boxes or click them to reveal the hints.

(Firefox recommended, but this should work in any browser which supports CSS formatting. Even in older browsers which don't support the 'invisi-' part all clues should be readable.)

When you're feeling lost, your tablet will give you a list of obstacles you're facing, and the deck map will show you where you are.

The Cabin and the Starboard Walk
1. What is the tablet for?
  1. It's a way for you to write down clues you find.
  2. If you carry it with you, you'll record various information automatically.
  3. Examine it once you've met Ishme for details.
  4. It's also a way to teach new players about the inventory system.
2. How do I get out of my cabin?
  1. Try the door?
  2. It's not locked, it's jammed. (Like everything on this ship, it hasn't been getting the maintenance it needs.)
  3. You'll need a tool of some sort to unjam it. If you don't have a tool, try the hatch instead.
  4. Once you've found the crowbar, OPEN DOOR WITH CROWBAR.
3. What do I do with the rudder?
  1. Examine it.
  2. It seems to be jamming up from time to time.
  3. When it does, one of the engineers needs to come and fix it.
  4. SABOTAGE THE RUDDER to make an engineer come.
4. Who is Ishme?
  1. EXAMINE ISHME.
  2. READ THE TABLET.
  3. She's the chief engineer. Her job is to fix things that break.
5. How do I talk to Ishme?
  1. TALK TO ISHME.
  2. See the General Questions section.
6. How do I get into Ishme's cabin?
  1. If she sees you in there, she'll shoo you away.
  2. You need to get in there when she's not.
7. How do I get past Ishme?
  1. If she sees you anywhere in this hallway, she'll shoo you away.
  2. Make sure she doesn't see you.
  3. Find a place to HIDE.
  4. For example, HIDE BEHIND THE HULL METAL.
  5. You'll need to move it away from the precipice first.
  6. PUSH THE HULL METAL AFT.
8. What can I do with the piece of hull metal?
  1. Examine it.
  2. Try taking it.
  3. You can PUSH it in various directions, like PUSH HULL METAL AFT.
  4. You can also HIDE BEHIND it, as long as it's not at the Precipice.
9. What can I do in Ishme's cabin?
  1. She might have a tool to open that jammed door.
  2. SEARCH THE WORKBENCH.
10. How can I see what Ishme is doing in her cabin?
  1. If you HIDE UNDER THE WORKBENCH you can watch what she's doing.
  2. This doesn't actually accomplish anything. She's just working on hull repairs.
11. How can I open the door in Ishme's cabin?
  1. She's barricaded it quite thoroughly.
  2. That door cannot be opened.
  3. (It's a limitation of having only four shipboard directions to work with. There's already another door leading forward from the Work Area, which is where this one should connect.)
12. What can I do with a crowbar?
  1. Remember the jammed door back in your cabin?
  2. OPEN THE DOOR WITH THE CROWBAR.
  3. Better hold onto it, in case anything else needs opening.
13. So what exactly should I be doing, from start to finish?
  1. Try to open the door to the cargo deck. It's jammed.
  2. Open the hatch instead, and go starboard.
  3. Examine the rudder and see that the mechanism is fouled up.
  4. Watch Ishme come and fix it.
  5. When Ishme leaves, go forward to the Precipice.
  6. Push the hull metal aft to the Starboard Walk.
  7. Go back to the Rudder Access and sabotage the rudder.
  8. Go forward to the Starboard Walk and hide behind the metal.
  9. Once Ishme's gone past, go forward into her cabin.
  10. Examine the workbench, then examine the glint to find a pry bar. Take it.
  11. Go back to your cabin and use it to pry open the door.
The Cargo Hold
1. How do I open the staircase downward?
  1. OPEN THE STAIRCASE.
  2. It seems to be latched from the other side.
  3. If you can get someone to come up from below, they'll unlatch the staircase to do so.
2. Who is Qarrad?
  1. She's the gunner, in charge of keeping the ship safe.
  2. In theory it's also her job to keep people from being murdered.
3. What is Qarrad doing?
  1. Pacing in circles, staring into space.
  2. And stopping you if she sees you carrying something you shouldn't.
  3. If you're not carrying anything illegal (or, rather, anything illegal that's too big to hide in your pockets), she'll ignore you completely.
  4. If you are, then you'll need to slip past her without being noticed.
4. How do I avoid Qarrad?
  1. Apart from the turret, she's not really paying attention to what's around her.
  2. You need to find a place to hide.
  3. What about that webbing at Crates and Boxes, and at Barrels and Pallets?
  4. If you remove the topmost cargo from the webbing, you can scramble up there and hide.
  5. Better store it somewhere it won't get noticed, or someone will come back with it and find you.
  6. If you hide the cargo in your cabin, Qarrad won't find it. Then you can hide in the webbing until she goes past.
5. What is this turret for?
  1. The sky is a dangerous place.
  2. The turret is a way to defend the ship when things get bad.
  3. It's also Qarrad's responsibility. She's examining it periodically.
  4. If anything goes wrong with it, she'll call someone in to fix it.
6. How do I fire the turret?
  1. You don't. That's Qarrad's job.
  2. Hopefully you won't need to.
7. How do I sabotage the turret?
  1. EXAMINE THE TURRET.
  2. EXAMINE THE VALVE.
  3. The valve is dangerously cold. You'll need a way to protect your hands.
  4. You'll need some protective gloves.
8. How do I open the cargo?
  1. If you've purloined a box or a cask, you can pry it open with the crowbar.
  2. You'll just need to find somewhere safe to do it.
  3. Do it back in your cabin and you won't be noticed.
9. What's the point of this toolbox?
  1. It probably has useful tools in it, if you can get it open.
10. How do I open the toolbox?
  1. It's locked, and you don't have a key.
  2. But you do have a crowbar.
  3. You need to get the toolbox somewhere private (like your cabin) to open it without being seen.
  4. Which means you need to get it past Qarrad. See above.
11. How do I get to the Starboard Boiler?
  1. That room is too hot to pass through at the moment.
  2. (For you, at least. Qarrad doesn't seem to mind.)
  3. What's making it so hot?
  4. Go to the Port Boiler and EXAMINE THE CONTROLS.
  5. If you PULL THE LEVER, it will "rebalance the load".
  6. In other words, the Starboard Boiler will cool off, and the Port Boiler will heat up. Pull it again to switch back.
12. The boiler controls are too hot to touch!
  1. You'll need something to protect your hands.
  2. You need to find the protective gloves.
13. Why can Qarrad go to the Starboard Boiler when I can't?
  1. She's ex-military, and used to dangerous temperatures.
  2. By now she's mostly lost her sense of touch and doesn't even notice the heat.
14. What do I do with these gloves?
  1. They protect your hands from extreme temperatures.
  2. WEAR THE GLOVES.
  3. Now you can turn the dangerously cold valve on the turret…
  4. …and also pull the dangerously hot lever on the boilers.
15. What do I do with a wrench?
  1. EXAMINE THE WRENCH.
  2. EXAMINE THE PIPES.
  3. SABOTAGE THE PIPES.
  4. You can also FIX THE PIPES if you have a moment of remorse.
16. What are these pipes for?
  1. They transport water, steam, and stranger things all over the ship.
  2. You can find them in every room.
  3. If you sabotage them, Bashti will come to the sabotaged room to fix it.
17. Who is Bashti?
  1. He's Ishme's apprentice.
  2. While she's working on the hull, he's handling everything else that needs doing on the ship.
  3. If something breaks down, outside of the Starboard Walk, he'll come to fix it.
The Lower Deck
1. Why is the cargo on top and the captain's quarters down below?
  1. On a normal ship, the nicer decks are the top ones, which are above the waterline.
  2. On an airship, though, the top is where all the machinery is.
  3. So the nicer decks are the lower ones, away from all that.
2. What's this tripod for?
  1. Try to TURN it, or OPEN or CLOSE it.
  2. It's a jack, for lifting things and holding them in place temporarily.
  3. It can be used to hold the staircase shut.
  4. It can also be used to lift other things.
  5. Specifically, it can also lift the fallen shelves in the Miscellany.
3. Why is this tripod under the staircase?
  1. Bashti was doing maintenance on the staircase before you interrupted him.
  2. He needed to hold it in place so he could work on the mechanism.
4. What is Kasap doing?
  1. He's trying to solve a murder.
  2. Currently, by doing an autopsy on the body.
  3. If you watch him for a while, he keeps going to the Miscellany for some reason.
  4. He's trying to find some supplies he needs, and failing.
5. What is Shimat doing?
  1. She's flying the ship!
  2. Normally there'd be a navigator at the front and a pilot at the back, but right now there's only her, so she has to run back and forth.
6. What are those strange hatches in the ceiling?
  1. Who knows what could be hidden behind them?
  2. They connect to a crawlspace between the decks.
  3. It's a way for the engineers to maintain the decks, like that maintenance passage at the start of the game.
7. How do I open the hatches?
  1. They're sealed.
  2. You need someone to unseal them.
  3. Which means you need to convince someone to go through them.
  4. Which crewmate can you manipulate to wherever you want them?
  5. The crawlspace is a lot less comfortable than the stairs, but you can force Bashti to use it.
  6. You need to make him go from one deck to another without using the stairs.
  7. First, get him up on the cargo deck by sabotaging the pipes.
  8. Then, go down to the Lower Deck, and jam the staircase shut.
  9. If you sabotage the pipes on the Lower Deck, now he'll need to use the hatches to reach it.
8. What's going on in the crawlspace?
  1. It's meant as a way for the engineers to get at things to fix them.
  2. But it seems someone has also hidden some parcels there.
  3. Curiouser and curiouser…
9. What can I do in the Surgery?
  1. You can examine the body.
  2. You can rifle through Kasap's supplies.
  3. That's about it.
10. What can I do in the Miscellany?
  1. You can search through the debris.
  2. But you won't have any more luck than Kasap.
  3. The stuff Kasap needs is buried under a fallen shelf.
  4. If you lift up that shelf somehow, he'll be able to get at it.
  5. Push the tripod into the Miscellany, then open it.
  6. Now the next time Kasap comes in, he'll find what he's looking for.
The Crew Cabins
1. How do I get into Ishme's cabin?
  1. See the first section of this page, about the Starboard Walk.
2. What can I do in Ishme's cabin?
  1. See the first section of this page, about the Starboard Walk.
3. How do I get into Bashti's cabin?
  1. Bashti is the only one with a key.
  2. He's too busy to spend any time in his cabin right now.
  3. But he'll go in there if he needs a special tool for something.
  4. If you sabotage the turret on the Cargo Deck, Qarrad will call him in.
  5. Then he'll need to get something to protect his hands with.
  6. After all, someone seems to have stolen the gloves he left in the Work Area. (Who would do such a thing?)
4. What can I do in Bashti's cabin?
  1. You can rifle through his belongings.
  2. You never know when a screwdriver might come in handy.
5. How do I get into Kasap's cabin?
  1. The door is broken. Just go in.
6. What can I do in Kasap's cabin?
  1. What can I do with the shelves?
    1. That gap seems just about you-sized.
    2. If you have something to stand on, you can climb up and hide in it.
    3. You just need something big enough to act as a step.
    4. You'll find something like that in Shimat's cabin.
  2. What can I do with the device?
    1. It's a frightfully complicated piece of equipment.
    2. You probably can't get it working on your own—the documentation is all in Kishadu.
    3. But if you could watch someone else use it, maybe you could figure it out.
    4. Once Kasap has what he needs from the Miscellany, he'll go to his cabin to use the device. (See the clues for the Miscellany on how to help him do that.)
    5. If you're hiding in there when he does, you can see how it works.
  3. No, really, what does this device do?
    1. It's a "flame spectrometer" to analyze the residues left on an object.
    2. The colors indicate what substances are present on it—which tells you who has handled the object recently.
    3. You just need to figure out what color corresponds to what person.
    4. The best way to do this is to analyze something from each of their cabins.
    5. For example, a chart from Shimat's cabin, a tool from the Surgery, the crowbar from Ishme's cabin, a component from Bashti's cabin, a powder bag from the Gunnery, and a jar from the Mess.
    6. Red-orange means Qarrad, pale orange means you, yellow-orange means Kiang, yellow means Udan, green means Ishme, sky blue means Bashti, deep indigo means Kasap, and violet means Shimat.
    7. You can also analyze the strange substances you find around the ship, though you don't have anything to compare their colors against.
7. How do I get into Shimat's cabin?
  1. The door to the Lower Deck is locked, but you can get in through the Miscellany.
  2. You need to open the tripod in the Miscellany to fit under the shelves.
  3. You also can't carry any large objects with you this way.
8. I'm in. But how do I open the main door to Shimat's cabin?
  1. How did you get the other cabin doors open?
  2. Sabotage the pipes in the cabin, and Bashti will unlock the door to get in and fix them. (Presumably he's borrowed the key from Shimat.)
9. What can I do in Shimat's cabin?
  1. You can rifle through her charts. But the most interesting thing is the chest.
  2. You can stand on it, if you want to.
  3. To open it, read the description carefully.
  4. The damage to the lock keeps it from opening.
  5. But the hinges are intact.
  6. Find a screwdriver and UNSCREW THE HINGES.
10. How do I get into the Mess/Udan's cabin?
  1. Kiang had a key, but they took that away when they locked him up.
  2. Without a key, the door can only be opened from the inside.
  3. Notice those strange hatches in the ceiling of the Lower Deck?
  4. They're another way to move between decks, without using the staircase.
  5. See the question about the hatches in the Lower Deck section.
11. What can I do in the Mess/Udan's cabin?
  1. You can rifle through his belongings.
  2. You can look for clues.
  3. Udan's body was found in here with the door locked.
  4. But you now know that there's another way to get out, without using the door.
12. How do I get into the Gunnery/Qarrad's cabin?
  1. First, get into the Mess. (See above.)
  2. There's a hatch in Qarrad's cabin mirroring the one in Udan's cabin.
  3. There's a reason Bashti chose to use Udan's instead of Qarrad's.
  4. He doesn't want to go past the Starboard Boiler, since it's unbearably hot.
  5. Mess around with the boiler controls to rebalance the load.
  6. If the Port Boiler is overheated, he'll go through Qarrad's cabin instead, opening the doors and hatches there.
13. What can I do in the Gunnery/Qarrad's cabin?
  1. You can rifle through her belongings.
  2. You can look for clues.
  3. None of the weapons on the racks are missing. The weapon that killed Udan must not have come from here.
  4. Only Qarrad and Udan are supposed to be carrying weapons on the ship.
General Questions
1. What's going on here?
  1. Why am I on this ship?
    1. You and your brother needed a cheap ride back to your home province, and found a freighter that needed to take off on short notice without a full crew.
    2. Then someone on that crew got murdered, and your brother got blamed.
    3. You need to clear his name by finding evidence of what actually happened.
  2. Who is Kiang?
    1. Kiang is your brother, currently (falsely?) accused of murder.
  3. Why did Kiang get blamed?
    1. He and Udan bonded during the flight, and he was spending a lot of time in Udan's cabin.
    2. Enough time that he had a key.
    3. The body was found in that cabin, with the door locked.
  4. Where is Kiang now?
    1. He's been locked in the brig.
    2. You can't reach him during normal gameplay.
2. Why can't I talk to anyone?
  1. Why doesn't anyone understand me?
    1. They don't speak your language.
    2. The whole crew is Kishadu, and you're Arali.
    3. The only person on the crew who spoke Arali was Udan, the one who hired you on.
    4. And now he's been murdered.
  2. What does "Kishadu" and "Arali" mean?
    1. You're from Arali, a province of the empire.
    2. The crew of this ship is from Kishad, another province.
    3. The empire has taken over recently enough that most people don't speak Imperial yet.
    4. Unfortunately, the Arali and Kishadu languages aren't mutually intelligible.
  3. What's the language the crew is speaking?
    1. In-universe, it's Kishadu.
    2. In real life it's Old Babylonian.
3. How do I make the game end?
  1. How do I trigger the ending?
    1. There are two ways.
    2. You can go to sleep in your cabin and trust the crew to take care of things.
    3. Or you can find some evidence, and make sure someone sees it.
  2. What types of evidence can I use?
    1. There are three main pieces of evidence on the ship.
    2. First, there's the cask and the box in the cargo webbing.
    3. Open them to find evidence that the ship is smuggling illegal drugs.
    4. Second, there's the parcel in the crawlspace.
    5. Open it to find evidence that the ship is smuggling highly illegal explosives.
    6. Third, there's the shock stick in the crawlspace.
    7. This is the murder weapon used to kill Udan.
  3. Who can I reveal the evidence to?
    1. You can show it to anyone on the ship: SHOW SHOCK STICK TO ISHME.
    2. You can leave it somewhere it'll be found (anywhere except your cabin and the crawlspace).
    3. You can rub the substances you've found on the manifest in Shimat's trunk, ensuring the customs inspector will see it when the ship lands.
  4. What are all the possible endings?
    1. Don't read this unless you're really sure you want to know!
    2. If you just go to sleep, Kiang is found guilty of murder.
    3. If you reveal the ship's crimes to Qarrad, she kills you to keep you from revealing anything.
    4. If you reveal the murder weapon to Bashti, he kills you to cover it up.
    5. If you reveal the murder weapon to Ishme, she frames you for murder.
    6. If you reveal the ship's crimes to the customs inspector, the entire crew is put on trial; the severity of the charges depends on the crime.
    7. If you reveal the smuggling to anyone else, they frame you for murder to keep you from telling the world.
    8. If you reveal the explosives to anyone else, the crew turns on Qarrad, and Kiang is freed.
    9. If you reveal the murder weapon to anyone else, the crew turns on Bashti, and Kiang is freed.
Where do I find…
1. …a pry bar?
  1. The workbench in Ishme's cabin.
2. …some protective gloves?
  1. The toolbox in the Work Area.
3. …a wrench?
  1. The toolbox in the Work Area.
4. …a screwdriver?
  1. Bashti's cabin.
5. …something to stand on?
  1. Shimat's cabin.
6. …a hiding place?
  1. The hull material at the Precipice, if you move it to another room.
  2. The workbench in Ishme's cabin.
  3. The webbing at Crates and Boxes and at Barrels and Pallets, if you remove some of the cargo first.
  4. The wreckage in the Miscellany.
  5. The shelves in Kasap's cabin, if you have something to stand on to reach them.
7. …evidence?
  1. It depends what sort of evidence you're looking for.
  2. See the entry under "General Questions".