Easter fun at the Redbright Institute (Scavenger Hunt!)

[undergroundmods]

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Spring is in the air and the Redbright Institute is hosting a weekend of Easter-themed family fun. The event is held outdoors on the Redbright grounds and includes an Easter egg trail, five-a-side football, croquet, arts and crafts, and a cake sale. Plus, a stall for refreshments selling tea and coffee for the adults and fruit juice for the kids. It's all decidedly kid-friendly and not magical at all. Expect to see lots of excitable children running around.

Of course, there is one event for the grown-ups: the much anticipated scavenger hunt! Teams sign up on the morning of 14th April and must solve all the clues by the event's close in order to win the grand prize.

Instructions for the Scavenger Hunt
• There are five clues to solve. You will receive each clue one at a time. Each clue leads to the location of the next clue.
• The answer to the clues is always either a person or a location (or sometimes both at once). To find the next clue, you must search the location or ask the person the clue points to. The answers are not all located in the Redbright Institute, which means your characters will be racing across London to try and find all the clues.
• Except for the first clue which you are given directly at reception when you sign up, every clue is wrapped up with a red ribbon. The ribbon itself has no significance, it just tells your characters that they've found the actual clue rather than a random object.
• You can ask for help up to three times. Help is provided by Mogget, who as you all know is very friendly. You need to tell him the clue you're struggling with before he can help you, so make sure you do that in your first tag to avoid wasting time.
• Everything above is ICly explained to your characters when they sign up so they know what to do. They also know about the time limit.
• When you think you know the answer to the clue, post ICly with your character searching that location or approaching a character and highlight that part of your tag in bold like this. This will allow me to quickly and easily see that you've answered a clue so that I can reply to either give you the next one or let you know to try again.
• Every character that participates will receive an Easter egg and a bonus two activity points!
• You have until 23:59 Sunday 16th April (GMT+1) to solve all the clues! If you manage to solve them all in the time limit and reach your end goal, the characters in the winning team(s) will receive an awesome prize and an extra bonus four activity points. If you don't solve them in the time limit, your team won't win the prize.
• One more tip: If you think you know the answer, go straight to that location or person in the first couple of tags! You can dally around for as many tags as you want, but that will waste time and make it less likely that you'll get through all five clues within the time limit.

[The scavenger hunt is closed to those characters who signed up, but the rest of this event is open to everyone! Feel free to mingle. If you have any questions about the event, please ask here.]

Comments

[outstandingbalance]

"Makes sense." Look, she was on the right track, even if she has never binge watched Scandal. "Let's go."

The two of them head for the West Winds to see what they can find.

[undergroundmods]

Good choice. At the reception of the West Winds, they'll find another brown envelope wrapped with a red ribbon. And inside that envelope is another card, which reads:

My first is in time but not in freight
My second in marble, standard and gate.
My third and fourth start and finish a test
My last starts a kill and ends where ships come to rest.

That's all for the third clue.

[outstandingbalance]

"At least some of that makes sense." Natasha murmurs. Not all of it, but enough to give them some direction. "Let's see if we can find Matt Murdock."

[undergroundmods]

They're doing well! Matt is at the school and is happy to give them the envelope containing the fourth clue, which reads:

SLIP THERE HE CREPT

That's it.

[ghoulaid]

That spelling thing in that last clue was real cute. He suspects this next nonsensical line will have something similar going on.

"You got a pen?" He asks no one in particular, really, because he ends up grabbing the first one he sees on the nearest surface and sets about scribbling on the card and the envelope itself. He scrambles the phrase around and plays with the words secret and helper for a while, but eventually he drops the pen noisily and jerks up, flapping a hand in Natasha's direction.

"C'mon, I think it's The Three Cripples," he explains as he all but herds her out the door. Of course he knows all the weird, shady places.

[undergroundmods]

Sure enough, at the bar of The Three Cripples there's a familiar envelope with a red ribbon tucked next to the till. The man at the bar knows what's up and is happy to hand it over. Inside is the card containing the fifth and final clue:

It would be a fine thing to compel lords.

They've done well so far. Can they solve it in time to win the prize?

[ghoulaid]

This one has him frowning. He only knows of one type of lord around these parts and compelling them gets a specific name stuck in his head. "D'you think it's Samantha?" Ghoul leans away from the clue like he's putting distance between him and Samantha herself. That can't be the answer, can it?

"If it is her, you better talk to her. She don't like me much."

[outstandingbalance]

"Don't think she'd like me any better. And I have a hard time picturing her playing along with all of this." Natasha shakes her head. That would be a pretty brazen move, alluding to compelling fae lords in the clues of a holiday game. "If you really want to try it, I guess I could suck it up, but..."

[ghoulaid]

"It'll be fine. You totally got a likable face." Well. That might be a bit of an exaggeration. Her face is fine and all, it's just... maybe a little serious sometimes...

"I guess we can try it. If it ain't her, we can always ask her dumb cat." Which is hardly any better than talking directly to Samantha. But, fuck it. They've got a mystery to solve.

They'll be tracking down Samantha this time, with Ghoul sacrificing Natasha to the beast.

[undergroundmods]

Samantha isn't present at the event, so they won't find her if they search around the Redbright Institute. Of course, they could always ask Mogget.

[outstandingbalance]

Unsure how to read this clue, Natasha and Ghoul will ask Mogget about their most recent clue, It would be a fine thing to compel lords.

[ghoulaid]

After a bit more back-and-forth discussion, they start the hunt for Sylvia Redbright. She is a chancellord, after all...

[brightwitch]

Sylvia is right in the middle of the event, handing out Easter goodie bags to excited children. She likes days like this. Nice days. Some people thought she should have cancelled the event after what had happened in Croydon, but Sylvia would disagree. They all need something to look forward to. Otherwise what's the point of fighting at all?

When Natasha and Ghoul come up to her, she straightens up and smiles at them, rolling down her sleeves. "Are you looking for me?"

[ghoulaid]

Ghoul dodges sugar-hyped children on his way to Sylvia, glancing back at Natasha to make sure this is, in fact, the correct lady. "Um, yeah," he says with a nervous half-smile. "Are you part of our hunt?"

[outstandingbalance]

"Or last clue seemed to point to the chancellor, so..." Here they are.

[brightwitch]

"I don't know." She offers a crooked smile. He seems rather sweet. And of course she knows Natasha. "Can you show me the clue?"

[ghoulaid]

"Oh- 'course, here." It takes a pat or two before he pinpoints which pocket he's put this one in, but once he fishes it out (and double-checks to make sure it's the right clue) he holds it out to her.

She has to be the answer, right?

Right...?

[brightwitch]

Sylvia scans the card quickly, then looks up and nods. "That's the one. Congratulations! Really well done. And you'll be wanting your prize... Come with me. What's your name, by the way?" she adds to Ghoul, since she already knows Natasha.

In the meantime she's gesturing for them to follow her away from the Easter egg trail. Time for them to collect their prize.

[outstandingbalance]

Looks like they made it. Natasha pays a little more attention at Sylvia's question. While she does know Ghoul's name, she doesn't know much else about him other than that and the fact he's a werewolf.

[ghoulaid]

She's it! Hah!! He flashes a bright grin over at Natasha, because yes, this is officially the best team of all time. He's almost as bad as one of the excited little kids zipping around, but listen. Winning stuff is great, okay. Even if it is just a holiday game.

He follows after Sylvia with a surprised-sounding, "Me?" even though he's pretty sure he already knows the answer to that. "Uh, just Ghoul..."

He gets a kick out of his fake name, he really does. Kills him every time someone makes the connection between it and the insult it's meant to sound like, buuuut it's not the greatest name to have in a more professional or kid-friendly situation. He really doesn't want to make it sound like he's telling this nice boss-lady to fuck off or anything, so...

[brightwitch]

"Ghoul?" Did she hear that right? Is that a name nowadays? She really is getting old. Never mind. "Well, it's lovely to meet you. We are right over here..."

She leads them over to the cake stall, which is naturally very crowded, and calls over to another witch.

"We have our first winners for the scavenger hunt! Do you have the prizes?"

The witch is a volunteer, a student from the stall who is helping to mind the cake stand, and she nods at once, ducking under the table to pick up... a cuddly toy! It's a giant Easter bunny, very adorable. The witch passes the bunny over to Ghoul and then ducks under the table again to pick up another identical bunny and give that one to Natasha.

Sylvia tries to imagine what Natasha will do with a cuddly Easter bunny. She's not sure. But she's smiling broadly as she watches them accept their prizes.

"Of course it wouldn't be a real Redbright prize if it didn't include a little magic. See its paws?" There's a gap between the bunny's front paws and its body where one could easily tuck a book or some other object. "Any item you store there can only be removed by the person who put it there in the first place. And it'll be completely impervious to any harm."

So maybe Natasha will find it useful. What Ghoul will make of it, she has no idea.

[ghoulaid]

Ghoul just laughs once he's handed his giant bunny. That's... not at all what he expected, but he's got a good sense of humor. He ends up setting it on his hip and holding it similar to how one would hold an actual child, because fuck, it's that big. "What happens if I shove somebody's arm in there? Are they stuck and invincible 'til I say otherwise?"

Oh, he'll find some kind of use for it.

[outstandingbalance]

Natasha isn't sure what she expected. She played to participate more than for any particular prize, and on that mark she couldn't complain. She takes the rabbit as though she's somewhat unsure what to do with it, though, or how to hold it without being awkward.

At the explanation, she nods though. That, at least, she can find uses for.

"This is going to look so out of place in my apartment..." Amused as much as anything, but still. She tens to keep a fairly spartan environment. This is going to stand out.

[brightwitch]

Ghoul is taking the whole thing in his stride. Sylvia shakes her head at him, amused. "That I don't know. Probably best not to try."

It's unlikely that the rabbit could trap someone's arm, since the spell was designed for inanimate objects. It isn't something they've tested.

[ghoulaid]

"Nah, it'll make a great centerpiece." He grins at Natasha and flaps one of his rabbit's legs in her direction.

His face scrunches up briefly at Sylvia's answer, but it's all right. He almost looks believable when he shrugs and tells her, "Yeah, no, 'course not. Totally won't try it." The today part is left unsaid... because he's gonna do it. Without a doubt. It's for science, okay. "I'm gonna go show off my fuckin' bunny," he announces before giving the two of them a wave and slipping away.

He'll be around for a while longer if he's needed again, but yeah. Definitely gotta parade his rabbit around a little first.