Just replayed the game to try and figure out the story (spoilers)

[ColonelKurtz]

This is the type game where things becomes clearer if you map out the timeline for the different characters, but thats for someone with more patience than me. Still, here's some unanswered questions, and what i think.

What was in the mine?
The simple answer is viking artifacts. If you approach the story from a rational view, without any supernatural explanations this is what lead to the conflict.

(As a side note, I don’t believe that the presence of artefacts in the mine would’ve been a problem a hundred years ago. Today finding old artefacts would require a lot of paperwork and expensive excavation, but i’m convinced that wasn't the case a hundred years ago. If someone has any thoughts on the mining operation and the actual significance of the artefacts i would be happy to hear them.

The line of events is as follow:
They start excavating the mine
Johan pulls out of the project (why?).
An accident happens, and the younger brother is killed. The village is split in half - some siding with Johan who pulled out of what turned out to be a dangerous operation, the other half siding with Fredrik who probably blamed Johan for pulling out and leaving him with to little resources.
The mine is closed (due to the accident, or Fredrik running out of resources?)
20 years later, Ruth explores the mine, finds some of the artefacts, and dies (probably from a tragic fall, but maybe murdered).
Simon dies as well, but it’s not clear how besides that he drowned.
Almost everyone else dies, besides Fredrik and Johan. A man hangs himself, while Johans wife dies in bed of an undefined disease.


What actually happened?
Theory 1: The curse of the mine
An actual curse on the digsite. Ruth dies because she took the treasure, and the conflict of the mine tears the community appart and leaves almost everyone dead due to various causes. Considering the whole village is dead, this would be a possible explanation, and would explain how her going in there again doomed the village.

Theory 2: The split village and the arsenic murder:
Internal strife in the village, and the twins blaming each other escalates the conflict. Hurt feelings, and Ruth’s death start a devastating conflict. Simon dies, and Fredrik is convinced the village is to blame.

My crazy theory is that the rest of the deaths were Fredrik’s doing. He ran the shop, and was grief-stricken with Simon’s death. If Simond drowned it might have been a murder, or and accident. What’s important is that Fredrik felt his brother had betrayed him, he’d lost his younger brother, and lost his wife in childbirth when Simon was born. Simon's death was the final straw.

The circumstantial evidence is that Fredrik really has lost everything, and had the motive and ability to poison the people still in the village. There’s arsenic in the mining cabin, and he ran the general store, where he’d be able to slowly poison the remaining villagers through his wares.

[Ogami]

Originally posted by ColonelKurtz:

The line of events is as follow:
They start excavating the mine
Johan pulls out of the project (why?).
An accident happens, and the younger brother is killed. The village is split in half - some siding with Johan who pulled out of what turned out to be a dangerous operation, the other half siding with Fredrik who probably blamed Johan for pulling out and leaving him with to little resources.
The mine is closed (due to the accident, or Fredrik running out of resources?)

Thats actually explained in the game. They found the artifacts together, Fredrik and Johan.
But the company that sponsored the mine did not want for that to be known by the public since they would need to shut down the mine then.
Johan was against keeping it a secret so they bought him off with a payment.
Then the younger brother died in an accident and the mine was closed anyway, leaving Fredrik broke and with a grudge against Johan who got money to keep quiet about the artifacts and possible because he gave him the blame for the younger brothers death because he was not there when it happend.
You find documents talking about it in the safe and in the hut before the mining entrance.

[Falaris]

Didn't manage to read the letter in the safe thoroughly, but I think I noticed a few details extra.

It is mentioned that it is a grave site, which definitely would have shut the mine down. Secondly, in the letter from the boston company it's mentioned that their representative had 'taken care of' the worker seeing the place.

We suspect the hanged guy might have been him; both brothers had moustaches.

Anyway, it's a really nice story and very well told. Even if they do leave a few details to think about. :)

[ColonelKurtz]

Yeah, i found myself thinking about it afterwards.

The hanged guy should be pretty recent, i'm actually curious who it's supposed to be. Is he responsible for any of the other deaths?

[[ZSU] Dave247]

I was confused thinking as to why the mine would get shut down over a few artifacts, but when you add that it was a grave then I can see how there would of likely been laws which would of shut the mine down so they could properly excavate it.

Also I just realised the reason Anna died was likely due to her being sick, which was mentioned in her diary in thew second floor.

Still no idea about he hanged guy though as I don't think the game gives any indication of who he could be, even after you consider that it was one of the last deaths and there wouldn't have been very many people left at that point.