Puzzles

Gravestone Memorial Puzzle (Baldwin Mansion)

Location: Baldwin Mansion, Above Fireplace
Requires:

• White Board: On the 2F north balcony above the Entrance Hall.
• Black Board: Right beside the grave.
• Red Board: Right beside the grave.

Contents

• Intro
• Solution

Intro

Upon examining the gravestone, an epitaph reads:

Along with you died joy.
All that remains is despair and a
future of meaningless tomorrows.

But I will never give up.
One, to see your
beautiful smile again.
One, to beg the
blessings of the Gods.
I wait for that day.

When the boards cover all
All sadness too will be covered
But until my dreams
return to reality
I will have to swallow
all the pain.

Under the inscription is a large square depression around the size of the three boards you now have, and a key that won't budge under that. "When the boards cover all; All sadness too will be covered" implies that you must insert the boards into the depression to release the key, however there's a catch.

Checking the boards in your inventory, you'll notice they each have square holes punched through them at different locations on each one, and there's a blue background on the square depression of the gravestone, which you will notice through the board holes if you place them in the depression. So what you have to do is find a way to insert all three boards so that the blue background is entirely covered.

You will find that each board has four rows and four columns where a hole can potentially be, and when standing upright they look like so:

Note: If you'd like to get crafty and try a fun way to solve this puzzle on your own, use three equal-sized pieces of square paper (sticky notes work well as they are already squares) and cut the matching holes into them as per the three boards you have. Be sure to mark each paper by its board colour and also identify where the top of the board is. Once that is done, simply lay the "boards" on top of each other and figure out a combination that covers all the holes. If you'd rather just do it in your mind, which is very much doable as well, continue reading below.

Solution

The first board you insert into the depression must go in straight up, but the next two boards you insert can go in either straight up (as is), 90 degrees to the left, 90 degrees to the right, or 180 degrees (upside down). Feel free to reference the boards above and find a solution that works by manipulating the boards in your mind.

Do yourself a favour and keep one board upright, but even if you find a solution with no boards upright, all you have to do is shift each board accordingly so that at least one of them faces upright and that one you will insert first. If you get what I mean, your solution actually won't change at all, but rather just the way you're looking at it.

One way to wrap your mind around it is to look at the holes as numbers, or even coordinates. With this perspective, the White Board has holes at (1,1) (1,2) (2,2) (2,4) (4,1) and (4,4) while standing upright. If we put the Black Board on top of it as is, it will cover up the holes at (1,1) (2,2) (2,4) and (4,4), thus leaving only (1,2) and (4,1) exposed. No new holes will be made either as the White Board covers the other holes in the Black Board.

Now if we put the Red Board in as is, it will cover (4,1) but not (1,2). However if we rotate it 90 degrees left first, it will cover both (1,2) and (4,1), and thus it is a potential solution that will work every time. You can visualize it here:

As you can see, every hole in each of the boards will be covered by at least one of the other boards. This is the only arrangement of the boards that works as a solution, however the entire arrangement can be shifted and work in another form. That is, if you put the Red Board in first as is, then the White and Black Boards just have to be shifted 90 degrees to the right. The boards will sit on top of each other and block the same holes, just all shifted 90 degrees to the right.

So the order you insert them really doesn't matter, just as long as the White and Black Boards go in the same way. Either way, you have the solution to the puzzle in its most simplified form:

1. Insert the White Board as is
2. Insert the Black Board as is
3. Insert the Red Board 90 degrees to the left

Once correctly inserted, the Acacia Key will come loose.