A Snake in the Grass is a Mystery Sidequest found in the Vatican City section of The Vatican. It can be undertaken at any time, and does not require any prerequisites.
Reward: 100 Adventure Points, 120 LiraTotal Notes: 2
This guide also works for the PlayStation 5 version of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, released globally on April 17, 2025.
This mystery can be activated by finding a Mystery Note in Father Ventura’s office — a room of green marble inside the Apostolic Palace’s highest floor, overlooking the Excavation Yard.
There are several ways to reach this room, depending on how stealthy or how acrobatic you want to be. The Apostolic Palace can be infiltrated quickly by climbing up to the roofs above the Borgia Courtyards, using the chapel under renovation to swing across the chandelier and climb the scaffolding.
Outside, you’ll find the rooftops run across to a high open window leading into the palace.
The top floor of the palace’s main room has a long balcony with several Blackshirts guarding the entrance to the office — of which one door is locked from the other side. You’ll either have to distract the guards or engage several at once to fight your way in.
However, you can also look for a window nearby at the top of the stairs that leads onto some scaffolding above the Excavation Yard. There’s identical scaffolding on the far side of the yard, and each leads up toward another balcony of Ventura’s Office, and you can use your whip to swing over without alerting anyone.
Once inside, look on the main desk for a suspicious Bookcase Note to start the Mystery.
Bookcase Note – Vatican City Mystery Note (A Snake in the Garden)
The note mentions a bookcase being redesigned with certain books that “must be taken alphabetically”. Flip the card over to see that each title correlates to a symbol:
Fraoncorum – Crown SymbolLogicae – Triangle SymbolQDC – Star SymbolPhilosophiae – Wheel Symbol
Sure enough, the large bookcase in the corner has several large books, and though you can’t see the names, the symbols are easily spotted. In order to solve the puzzle, pull out the books in the following order: Crown, Triangle, Wheel, Star.
Done correctly, a compartment will open on the side, revealing a ton of Lira to swipe, and a very incriminating Mussolini’s Letter to Ventura.
Mussolini’s Letter – Vatican City Mystery Note (A Snake in the Garden)
While you have the run of Ventura’s office, be sure to also swipe the Medicine Bottle to the right of the bookcase, and take a snapshot of the Dragon Statue.
Be sure to also check the back room for a padlocked box you can smash open to get more money (but be wary of a Blackshirt on duty).
Ventura’s Office Medicine (Vatican City)Dragon Statue – Vatican City Field NoteA Snake in the Garden Mystery Complete
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