The knights are patrolling the grounds and have the walls under constant surveillance so the thief cant escape... probably… The thief will be running around in the castle during the start of the game and, upon successfully escaping the building, will be running around the grounds searching for some place to hide or escape. Try what you may to catch him/her. You can stake out one section of the grounds/castle each phase (day) and hope that you get a sighting of the thief. Knights will lurk around places where there was a sighting so if you go talk to the knight then you can get the clue that he/she may have. The guards are quite forgetful so be quick or miss the clue.
The castle is divided into the three main floors. Everyone on the floor where the thief appears will get clues. Pick a room/pair of guest rooms or lurk in the hallways in the floor you chose and you may get a bonus clue should the thief appear. Everyone in the building will be alerted if the thief is spotted and can get clues if they talk to the guards although guards will always give somewhat less than you could otherwise have gotten from an actual sighting.
The grounds will be divided into five sections, four areas with its own guard house (lake, garden, forest, and gate) and the castle as its own area. The chances of spotting the thief will depend on how much people are in a section and whether the thief actually appears there. The castle will get any news of sightings the next turn and everyone else will get the news on the turn after so if you are around the castle then you can get the somewhat faster information. If you spotted the thief yourself (was in the section where the thief appeared) then you will get slightly more information than those who go around asking the guards. Lurking at the gate will make it more difficult for the thief to escape normally. The other areas may give a chance at a random event which could aid the discoverer. The game ends when the thief escapes the grounds, is caught, or all the presents are retrieved.
As you might have guessed, this game requires quite a lot of luck. Each sighting will give the people who saw the thief a chance of retrieving a present that the thief carelessly dropped while running away. The thief will have a chance at escaping every turn but sightings will lower the chance of escape. The thief will be caught after 250 sightings total or 50 sightings from a single player and an accurate accusation (the thief has quite the low chance of winning actually xD). There is a small chance at a general random event happening each turn which may benefit everyone… or not. Places may have an area specific special event and other untold surprises~
Guard's piece of the map~
The odd thingy going around the grounds a river from the lake~
The stuff on the right of the map of the grounds is the layout of the castle~
The guard's houses were all built the same way
so i can save some time and lead I mean because that odd constructor guy who planned them didnt want to work~