With a soft rattle, the chain separates from the latch on the other side of the door. You put away your tin snips, and slowly open the door, lifting hard against the hinges to keep them from creaking. The foyer is dusty and dimly lit; soft blues and yellows seep in from outside through a broken slat in the Blinds across the room. You step over the pile of mail in the hallway and stick close to the wall, resting your hand on your service pistol. It's weight on your hip is solid and reassuring. There shouldn't be anyone here--it's a missing persons case, after all... missing people shouldn't be at home--but, better safe than sorry.

You make your way through the apartment one room at a time. Nothing interesting in the kitchen; the dining room is bare. Everything is covered in dust, from the tables and chairs to the hanging light fixtures. On the whole, unit X5 looks entirely un-lived in. Coming to the bedroom, the difference is startling. Every other room in the unit is an inch deep in dust, yet the bedroom is spotless. The bed is made, the console is clean; hell, even the houseplant in the corner is bright green and vivid. The soil is still damp... how can someone come and go to Water the plants without disturbing the rest of the unit? You begin to wonder if you're overlooking something simple.

on cue, a rustling outside the window catches your attention. A dark figure is crouched on the fire escape. You run to the window, but before you can get to it, the stranger turns and dives off the edge, out into the night. Flinging the window open and looking down--preparing yourself for a gruesome sight--you're surprised to find the alley below empty and totally devoid of splattered thieves. He was probably a thief, right?

Leaving as you came, you make your way down to the alley behind the Queen James--odd name for an apartment block, you think--to investigate your mystery thief. Nothing important catches your eye. Some trash blows around, a street light flickers, a beggar sniffs... a beggar sniffs? "You!" You shout. "Where did he go? That man. You must've seen him."

"Are you the policeman, what was up in there window?" Said the beggar. "Man said not to meddle," he said. "Or else." said the beggar. You pull back your coat, resting your hands on your hips, the barrel of your service pistol glinting in the flickering yellow light. "Or else, what?" you say. The beggar's eyes flicker downwards only for a moment, then a thin smile creeps across his grizzled face. "That, policeman, he did not say."

Welcome to Adventure Puzzle #2, presented by the Riddlers. Please leave mention "RIDL" in your comments in the final prize if you're interested in joining or receiving credit for solving. Special thanks to wbarton, monukai, and thejadefalcon for beta testing and idea rejection. Special thanks to megagiga34 for finding a public portion of the puzzle before it went live and teaching me not to do that anymore.

Disclaimers: Spoilers will not be tolerated, on the forums or on chat. Spoilerers will be barred from entering future puzzles. In the event that a member wins more than one prize, I reserve the right to ask that member to pick their favorite and reroll the others. I also reserve the right to request a winner explain their solving process in the case of suspicious entries and/or suspected leaks.

Good luck and have fun. All prizes open until Sunday 4/15/12 at 5:50pm EST.

Also, please don't add me for help. I'll try and hang out in Riddlers Labyrinth when I can.

Solutions:

Hey now. Congratulations to kajoona, Scooper, cams02, and vincent1337 on their puzzle solving skills and good fortune. The were four prizes in this chain, you would reach each in the according fashion:

1: Deus Ex: GOTY Editipn: On this original post, plug the italicized letters into a steamgifts URL (seek-n-find style).

2: Deus Ex: Invisible War: Solve the playfair cipher on the GOTY page by using the keyword "James" (message was hidden in his photograph, and he was mentioned in the message) and a 25-letter alphabet created by dropping "Q" (we suqqest you leave one out)

3: The Deus Ex Collection: a simple number/letter code, replace 01 with a, 02 with b, 03 with c, etc. None of the numbers were greater than 26.

4: Deus Ex: Human Revolution: Three parts to this one. The first is a base64, the second Morse code, and the third was another seek-n-find italics hunt.

Again, congrats to our winners and to all who partook. RIDL credit given to those who posted in the final prize before it closed. Thanks again to my beta testers and associates. See you again soon :)