Case № CHING-01South China Seas, 1810
The Legend of Ching Shih
South China Seas, 1810. The most successful pirate in history vanished with a fortune. Somebody wrote it all down, and the paper survived.
The case
The Legend of Ching Shih
Ching Shih — the Widow Ching — commanded four hundred junks and eighty thousand pirates and then, in 1810, she walked away from all of it. The Qing granted her amnesty; everyone else assumed the treasure went with her. We have the treasure map. We have the admiralty correspondence. We have three rival claims, and one of them is a forgery. Advanced play — if you've enjoyed the others, this is for you.
She was the most successful pirate in history. She commanded four hundred junks, eighty thousand men, and a fleet so large the Qing navy couldn’t catch it. Then in 1810 she accepted amnesty, retired to Guangzhou, and everything went quiet — except for the three people who later claimed her treasure.
One of them is lying.
Advanced play
Ching Shih is built for experienced sleuths who’ve worked at least one case before. Map-folding, coded manifests, rival provenance — it rewards careful cross-referencing.
The envelope contents
What's in the box
We do our best to theme the contents to the story. This means the box will include interesting objects like silk fragments, pressed leaves and other memorabilia. Most of the narrative part of the story is contained in different paper documents which include ledgers, manifests, admiralty reports, a folded treasure map and more.
- № 01
The Widow Ching's paperwork
Translated ledgers, manifests and correspondence from the Red Flag Fleet.
- № 02
A coded treasure map
Hand-drawn, folded, and deliberately incomplete.
- № 03
Three rival claims
Submitted by three separate parties after her disappearance. One is fake.
- № 04
Admiralty reports
What the Royal Navy and the Portuguese both wrote down.
- № 05
Physical evidence
A pressed leaf, a spent musket ball, a silk fragment from a captain's sash.
Audience & difficulty
Challenging but solveable.
1810
Advanced play, built for experienced sleuths. Set in the South China Seas in 1810, it rewards careful cross-referencing: coded manifests, map-folding, rival provenance, and one claim among three that is a forgery. If you've enjoyed the others, this is for you.
Ciphers you'll meet
- Coded manifests
- Map-folding puzzles
- Letter substitution
- Provenance cross-referencing
From the case
A closer look
Letters of praise
What detectives are saying
“A wonderful, unusual setting. The maritime paperwork feels properly researched and the puzzles lean on geography in a way I haven't seen in other case-file games.”
“Brought it on a long weekend away — we finished it in two long evenings with a glass of wine each night. Great pacing, very rewarding final reveal.”
“The physical ephemera are gorgeous. Charts, ledgers, scraps of correspondence — you feel like a 19th-century clerk trying to piece together a cover-up.”
Ready?Case № CHING-01
Post me a killing.
Other cases
More on the shelf
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Valley of the Kings, Egypt, 1920s
The Curse of Humanrah
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Case № MARL-01Devilish
Whitechapel, London, autumn 1888
Murder at Marlborough House
Victorian Whitechapel, 1888. Not the one you're thinking of — but the same streets, the same fog, the same kind of quiet cruelty.
Case № SITEQ-01Classic
Mexico, 1953 · reopened 1973
The Secret of Site Q
An archaeological expedition. A member missing. A black market awakening twenty years too late.
Before you buy
Common questions
I'm new to Cosykiller — where should I start?
Start with An Inheritance of Murder. It's our gentlest case, built for puzzle-minded beginners — Braille, letter-to-symbol substitutions and one-time cipher pads. The Curse of Humanrah is the next step up with knock codes, Vigenère and occasional folding. The Secret of Site Q sits in the middle — challenging but solvable. The Legend of Ching Shih and Murder at Marlborough House are our advanced cases — do them once you've worked one of the others.
How old do you need to be to play?
Cosykiller is written mainly for adults, but families can participate together. A note of caution: Murder at Marlborough House is set in 1888 Whitechapel and contains graphic descriptions and period drug references — 18+ for that one.
What's inside a Cosykiller box?
It varies by case, but every box contains a cover letter from Fairhall & Brett Inheritance Recovery — the fictional investigators who brief you on the case — followed by the documents, photographs, ciphers, maps and personal effects collected during the investigation. Some cases include dried botanicals, spices, telegrams, theatre programmes and small physical objects. Each case is a complete story in a single box, with the final solution sealed inside. Nothing to download or sign into.
How long does it take to solve a case?
Between six and eleven hours, depending on the case, the number of players, and how much you like to re-read. Most people spread a case over two or three evenings. You can pause whenever you like — put the lid back on, come back next weekend. Nothing expires.
Can I play solo, or do I need a group?
Both work well. Every case is designed to be solvable on your own — no mechanic depends on a second reader. That said, two to four players is where a case shines, because half the fun is arguing civilly about motive over a drink.
I'm stuck on a code — what do I do?
Each case comes with three sealed hint envelopes — open them in order when you get stuck. There's also an online community where other detectives swap ideas (link included with your order). If you'd rather not break a seal, email <a href="mailto:supersleuth@cosykiller.com">supersleuth@cosykiller.com</a> with your case number and the document you're stuck on and we'll help without spoiling.