Secret Gate

Secret Gate challenge banner - a magnifying glass held up against a blurry landscape around sunset. The challenge title appears inside the magnifying glass, with the text "SWG challenge" at the upper right and text "June 15-July 15 2023" in the lower left.

Sherlock Holmes. Miss Marple. Lieutenant Columbo. Kurt Wallander. Benoit Blanc. Your preferred sleuth may vary, but there’s nothing like a good whodunnit. From the most arcane puzzle to the easiest open and shut case, all mystery novels require certain basic elements. This month’s challenge is a Matryoshka that presents you with the building blocks of a mystery novel. When requesting your prompts, make sure to specify the difficulty level you would like: Beginner (2 prompts), Easy (3 prompts), Medium (5 prompts), or Difficult (7 prompts). Contact the mods to request a prompt set or sets.

While the prompts are elements of a mystery, your fanwork does not need to be a mystery—use the prompts as you see fit. As June is Pride month, we have a special stamp for fanworks featuring LGBTQ+ characters.

This month's stamps are by Varda delle Stelle.

This challenge opened in .

Fanworks Tagged with Secret Gate

This is a Writing fanwork

Artifacts in Archive by Lferion

In Valinor, Cîr Imladris built, Elrond takes the opportunity to properly catalogue, categorize, and annotate one of the slowly diminishing collection of uncatalogued, uncategorized "miscellaneous objects with words attached"  that had been part of the library and archive at Imladris from the beginning.

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This is a Writing fanwork

Betrayed by LadySternchen

Lúthien thinks she can trust her best friend- until she is proven wrong. 

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This is a Writing fanwork

A Small (Mis)Adventure by Grundy

When Tuor can't find Eärendil, he sends for Maeglin to help.

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This is a Writing fanwork

Things You've Done by StarSpray

They sat in silence for a little while, until Maglor finished his cup of water and sighed. “There is something on your mind,” he said. “Out with it.”

To his vague surprise, Elros did not look up. He carefully plucked another flower and added it to his growing chain. “Why did you do it?”

“Why did I do what?”

“Not—just you. You and—everyone. Why did you come to Sirion?”

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This is a Writing fanwork

Once upon a moon on the brink of June by Himring

Quirky Tom is stumped in his investigation; his partner delivers the goods. (Deliberately misleading summary inspired by the challenge prompts! See Story Notes for more reliable information.)

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This is a Writing fanwork

It's not easy, but it's worth it by daughterofshadows

Three characters, three moments. Three stages of the same journey. The road of self-acceptance is never smooth.

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This is a Writing fanwork

On the Noldor, Exiled by Lferion

A sonnet addressing some of the challenges the Noldor faced as Exiles.

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This is a Writing fanwork

Listen to the Song by polutropos

Young Daeron has many questions. This time, they lead Beleg to a vision of a dark future for the elves on the westward journey.

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This is a Writing fanwork

Rematch by I_did_not_mean_to

A short crime-story that is a direct continuation of a Drabble written for B2MEM (Match).

Detective Aredhel and her second-in-command Haleth find the burned corpse of a boy. They now have to investigate men they had thought firmly and safely relegated to the past. 

Can they be guilty of a crime so heinous? Why won't anybody in that dark, foreboding house cooperate when the women clearly toil to save their reputations and lives?

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