Evangeline's Lost Ledger

The sale of Blackwood Manor's contents, spring 1887, in America (money in dollars). Lady Evangeline Blackwood, veiled in mourning, sat in the back row at every lot. There are six lots, each with three items, and in every lot someone is not telling the truth. The papers prove it. Each lot is a complete story on its own.

Three places: the easels and the auction stands in the Library, and the Clerk's Passage (the back hallway), where Evangeline's Ledger and the clerk's papers hang.

Creative control: Zach (handed over by Brett on 2026-10-07); lore with Tiffany and Ambrose. The working spec is GAME-INFO.md in this folder.

1. Choose a story (easel). Ring the brass bell on the easel's crown. A short narrated intro (Charles Haversham, about 28 s; ring the bell to skip it) explains there are six stories. On the list, the left lit button moves up, the right lit button moves down, the bell chooses. The lot rolls straight into its story: its three items and the people in the room, with framed portraits. Then the easel shows and speaks the lot's paddle code: three symbols (triangle, star, square) in order.
2. Return to the night of the sale (auction stand). Any button wakes the stand: a greeting, the three symbols, then a request for the paddle code. Press the three symbols. The stand plays the opening scene of the sale, which breaks off before each hammer, and introduces three people from the room, one per button.
3. Hear every account. The stand goes through the items one at a time. For each item, each of the three people gives their account while their button lights. After each item there are 6 seconds to press someone's symbol and hear them again (hold a button 2 s to replay the scene). Each lot warns that not everyone in the room is telling the truth.
4. Read the evidence (the Clerk's Passage). The stand's closing line sends players there: find the lot in Evangeline's Ledger and the clerk's papers on the wall.
5. Make the ruling (any easel). Choose the lot again, ring the bell to skip the story, and choose "Give your answer". Five questions: what became of each item (Sold / Returned / Refused / Withdrawn / Missing), who lied (or the lot's twist), and one last ruling. A wrong answer gets a spoken hint and another try; there is no dead end.
6. Case closed. The fate is stamped on a gold plate and Evangeline speaks her line.

Cast: Charles Haversham (narrator), Mr. Augustus Crane (the auctioneer, honest in every lot), Pemberton (the butler), Colonel Singh (the bidder), Miss Ada Pruitt (the clerk), and Lady Evangeline, who speaks only in the endings. Scripts: demo/lot1-script.md … lot6-script.md.

No NFC, RFID paddles, coins or countdown lights any more: those belonged to the earlier designs.

• 0.3.0 (2026-10-12): after the code, the stand walks through the three items; for each item, each person gives their account; then a 6 s window to re-hear anyone. Scene lamps breathe, the speaker's lamp is full, the window lamps pulse.
• Every wake starts with the greeting; a press during it skips to the code request (0.2.1/0.2.2).
• All narration is Charles Haversham (the Chatterbox clone), never a generic TTS voice.

Easel (Raspberry Pi GPIO)

The button LEDs light when pressing that button does something on the current screen. 12 V button LEDs need a transistor (3.3 V pins); details in the easel's WIRING.md.

Auction stand (Mega, since 0.3.0)

Buttons to GND. DFPlayer on Serial2 (pins 16/17). A stand still wired the old way (buttons and lamps on 22-27) must be rewired before it runs 0.3.0.

• Stand card: one universal card holds all six lots: folder 01 (shared prompts, 12 files) and folders 11-16 (one per lot, 33 files each). Current card: 2026-10-12-itemfirst1 (Understudy audio set lost-ledger-auction-sd). Firmware 0.3.0 needs a card from 2026-10-12 on; an older card reports the lots as missing.
• The closing line of every lot sends players to the Clerk's Passage and back to the easels.
• Easel audio (stories, questions, hints, endings, intro) is generated with the easel app and pushed to the Pis with it.

• Easel staff list: hold UP and DOWN together for 3 s, from anywhere. It has the Staff review row (pick item art). Hold again on the staff list for the button test.
• Overnight: Understudy puts every easel in standby (TV off) for the blackout and reboots the easels when the blackout is released.
• Stand modes: hold LEFT+RIGHT 3 s to cycle CODE (the game) → TEST (each button says its symbol) → SEANCE. The lamps flash 1/2/3 times to show the new mode.

1. Finish the build-out: every easel and every stand in place (stands on 0.3.0 with the 2026-10-12-itemfirst1 card), then a full playthrough.
2. A sign for the Clerk's Passage.
3. The "how to play" one-sheet for Brett (demo/how-to-play-sheet-draft.md) still describes the older five-button easel.
4. A label for the leather ledger prop (Tiffany / Ambrose).
5. Lots 2-6 scripts were drafts awaiting lore sign-off (Tiffany, Ambrose).

Before 2026-10-07 this game was specified very differently: first as RFID paddles at eight easels with a central Ledger Desk, evidence-buying stations (Phase II) and a magnetic ledger board (Phase III); then (2026-09-30) as six fixed easels with bidding by Copper / Silver / Gold and countdown lights. None of that is being built. The full text is kept at the bottom of GAME-INFO.md.