Transcript of this chapter:

crystal: It's got to be light outside by now, and we've been reading through this stuff all night. I'm starting to get bored of all this ancient history.
annabelle: It's not history to me. I died before anything in these books happened.
crystal: I think it's pretty obvious that Spider Cliff has too much documentation. I agree that we might find the recipe to your love potion in here somewhere, but there's so much to go through... and too many unresolved questions.
annabelle: Well, when can we do to narrow it down?
crystal: We should look for examples of the Sprawling Code. That's the code that appearing around town, isn't it?
crystal: If the Sprawling Code was used by that family, and if Katherine Ivy Sprawling knew how to make a love potion, she might've written it down in code.
annabelle: She wrote a lot of stuff. She kept a diary, she wrote essays for the local paper, and she even kept the accounting books at the mammal mill.
crystal: We need to learn everything we can on Elkwood's wife. This Katherine Ivy Sprawling had to know something about love potions, if she can snare Elkwood in two days.
crystal: What do we know about her?
annabelle: I checked all the birth records. Katherine Ivy Sprawling and her brother Ignatius were the only children of Lazeby Sprawling, who built the original paper mammal mill.
annabelle: Katherine was born in 1907 and Ignatius was born in 1908. They were orphaned in 1910, when their parents were killed by a zombie.
crystal: Tragic.
annabelle: Eh, whatever.
annabelle: Apparently, Katherine wanted to be a writer or a poet, but as half-owner of the mammal mill, she had business obligations. She did keep a diary, though... one of the longest diaries in the archives.
crystal: All this reading is so boring! We need to take action.
annabelle: I know you don't like doing all this research. You can go, and I'll continue reading.
crystal: No, I really need to stick to this and get it done. I'm sorry, I'm just feeling timed and hungry. It's surprising how exhausting this researching can be. I really need some brain food.
annabelle: I brought a bucket, so help yourself.
annabelle: I'm glad I brought snacks, because Katherine Ivy Sprawling sure did write down a lot of stuff.
crystal: Her diary is the best place to look for our recipe.
annabelle: Sure, but it might take some time. The diary spans over a hundred volumes! I'm reading part of it now.
annabelle: So far, I've noticed that several sections of her diary were written in that Sprawling Code. Obviously she knew the code well, but so did other people in her family.
crystal: Do you see any instructions on breaking the code?
annabelle: I've been looking, but no instructions or any hints.
crystal: But if there are large sections of text in that code, it might be enough that we can crack it... and if we can break the code we'll have a better idea of who's writing those messages around town.
crystal: Look for entries around the time of her wedding. She got married to Elkwood only two days after his engagement to Vedalia. If she used a love potion, she might have mentioned something about it.
annabelle: Okay... How does this passage sound?...
annabelle: "It worked! It worked better than I ever imagined! I insisted that we get married immediately!..."
annabelle: "He writes songs and poems for me, and he loves the poems that I write for him! He loves my name so much that wants to take it when we're married..."
crystal: Hmmm.... Infatuation like that could only be caused by a love potion. I think we have our proof.
annabelle: She also mentions Vedalia in the same section. It looks like they weren't on speaking terms after the wedding.
crystal: That's understandable. Does she mention how she made the potion?
annabelle: Alas, no. There's a page ripped out right here, and there's nothing about a potion... or anything in code, in the surrounding sections.
crystal: What's the last entry in her diary?
annabelle: That's one of the first things I found. She wrote right up to the very day that she left on the gondola. Unfortunately, it doesn't offer any clues on the gondola disaster... or about making love potions.
annabelle: She was worried about the long-term finances of the paper mammal mill more than anything else. Apparently, the Sprawling family bankrolled the entire gondola project. Their partner in the venture, Mr. Bath, built the gondola but had no money to contribute.
crystal: Were she and Vedalia always enemies?
annabelle: It doesn't look like that was the case. They appeared to get along fine until the situation with Elkwood.
crystal: I wonder why she would suddenly steal away Vedalia's husband-to-be?
annabelle: Judging by the earlier volumes of her diary, I'd say that Katherine was interested in Elkwood for a long time... Lots of "I heart Elkwood" written in the margins.
crystal: But there's no proof that he loved her, except under the effects of that potion. It was Vedalia that he got engaged to.
annabelle: Well, he must have loved Katherine in no small way, because they stayed happily married for over 30 years!
crystal: Did Katherine and Elkwood have any children?
annabelle: Yes. They had one son, Thomas Sprawling, born 1935. They lost him, though. As an infant, he was stolen away by a demon. They never had any other children.
annabelle: It may interest you to know that neither Sprawling couple had any heirs reach adulthood. Ignatius and his wife Ellen (Sluggmosse) Sprawling had a son about a year later but that child died in some sort of tragedy.
crystal: Wow, that poor family.
annabelle: Yeah, I think a lot of the grief that Katherine felt was written in her diary in code.
crystal: I bet our love potion recipe is encoded in there somewhere. We just have to go through the whole thing, page by page.
crystal: And here comes Alex. I can imagine our presence here is not going to please him.
annabelle: How do I look?
alex: What?! You two aren't allowed in here!
alex: What happened to the bumberberry sprigs I had here to keep the undead at bay? This is a violation of my personal space!
crystal: Aren't these archives open to the public?
alex: Uh... yeah, technically.
crystal: Then we're exercising our rights to do research here.
alex: You... You've never been interested in local history. Something isn't right.
crystal: I hate local history, but Annabelle here is very interested. Perhaps you could assist her?...
alex: Oh, I get it. This is just another stupid attempt to play Cupid, isn't it?! Well, it's not going to work!
crystal: We're looking for exciting ways to destroy the town.
alex: Oh, you think you're so clever, don't you? You're just here to annoy me, aren't you?
crystal: This isn't about you, don't flatter yourself. The only reason we're here is because we need information.
alex: Ha! Like I'd really believe that?
crystal: What do you know about Katherine Ivy Sprawling?
alex: Wh... What? Why would you be asking about... her?
crystal: We're investigating... something...
alex: What's your angle? You're here to annoy me... or you're looking for something.
crystal: No, Alex, we really ARE doing research... on Katherine Ivy Sprawling.
alex: Why would?... What's the point in doing research on her?
crystal: We just want to.
alex: Ha, then don't let me stop you. She wrote more than anyone in this town, and it's all pointless, petty gossip!
alex: And it's not like she writing is any good, either. She wrote a volume of poetry to Elkwood, the most HORRIBLE stuff ever put on paper. Completely unreadable!That little book is one of the only things here I won't read.
alex: If you're really serious about learning about her, I'll leave you to it. Heh, totally useless.
crystal: If I wanted to hide a potion recipe, I'd hide it in the last book that anyone would want to read. We have to find that book of poetry.
crystal: Find anything interesting?
annabelle: Wow, Alex wasn't joking. This really IS the worst poetry ever written.
annabelle: It's a good thing that I'm already dead, because no mortal could survive this.
annabelle: Hey, look at this. I found it! Katherine's instructions for making a love potion!
crystal: See? I knew this was the right place to look.
annabelle: We need red-fanged mandrake... lemon... screaming nettles... roots from a pair of matrimonials... It looks fairly easy to make.
crystal: We have everything we need for that love potion! Let's make it!
annabelle: Yippee!
crystal: I think that you'll have no trouble making the potion now, so don't let me stop you. Just promise that you won't use it on Alex until we have it all planned out.
crystal: We don't want the wrong people falling in love.
crystal: Any other useful potions in there?
annabelle: No... no... I don't see anything like that...
annabelle: Wait, this is interesting...
annabelle: You know how there's a lot of samples of that code in Katherine's writings... There's a short note in the margin here... "F HRSPLAPH DLPVALCF PUCDPZFG SPADKKDL"...
crystal: That sounds like the same code.
annabelle: Yeah, but underneath it is written a translation... "Must not mention ----------- to Ellen"... It's a partial translation, at least.
crystal: Do you know what this means? We can use this to crack the code! We can find out what those other messages were warning us about!
crystal: Was Katherine a witch? If she made that potion...
annabelle: I looked through a lot of her writings, but this potion is the only mention of witchcraft I could find. I suspect she only make the potion because she tried every other method first.