Suspicion and evidence

Okay, so. Evidence and suspicion needs to be reworked.

The goal is to enable the following narrative:

"The evil castle on the hill is where nobody goes. The lady of the castle is building something, no-one knows what, and anyone who goes up the castle doesn't come back. The castle is surrounded by dark woods and the howls coming from their twisted depths aren't like any animal that nature created. The people of that place remain trapped, unable to leave, as the woods are simply too dangerous to cross, and while the kingdom outside sends investigators they never get word back. Eventually they will become suspicious enough to deploy the army, but until then the lady continues her dark work."

Essentially you want to have an isolated city, and need to manage suspicion by killing off anyone who tries to enter or leave. Rumours will spread out, eventually, but actual evidence requires an investigator to get eyes on the castle (be in the hex adjacent), OR enough investigators to go missing for the conclusion to be self-evident. You won't win by hiding, but it could buy you many turns of peace and quiet as you build up your power.

Work on this is going well. Lords now don't immediately accuse based on suspicion, they merely send out investigators, with greater urgency if their suspicion rises enough. World evidence and travelling traders' reports are "rumours" and are unfounded, but enough to make a lord start making inquiries. They also notice darkness, even if the lord themselves isn't evil. This means that they have three knowledge states about the world: Normal, where they don't think anything is wrong; Suspicious, where they have heard rumours but haven't got any firm evidence and Aware, when they know darkness is coming.

Alongside that, they also have a set of beliefs about everyone they've investigated. They know when the last report was, whether the investigator saw any evidence that the lord is evil and whether the investigator saw evidence the lord is enshadowed. Mind-altering rituals could then affect this knowledge set, removing, shuffling or adding to it. Enthralled might also just start sending false letters or misleading investigators to get innocent people accused, to draw society's attention away from them.