undergrounds | Easter fun at the Redbright Institute (Scavenger Hunt!)

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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.]

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For those of you taking a break to enjoy some Easter-themed fun. Families are very welcome! Anyone else can join too, but please remember that there are children present.

Thank you, Nancy and Cesare, for signing up for the scavenger hunt! Your first clue is a small slip of paper that has the following words printed on it:

GRIP ON LIVID BREATH

There's nothing else on the paper. Good luck!

Thank you, Natasha and Ghoul, for signing up for the scavenger hunt! For your first clue, you are given a page photocopied from a book. On the back is a red stamp reading "OVERDUE".

That's all there is. Good luck!

Mogget can be found curled up in his very own cat bed in the reception seating area. He will provide hints for each team up to three times. You can either approach him in person or if you're out somewhere in London, you can text him to receive a hint. (How can he text back given his lack of opposable thumbs? Another mystery to figure out...)

Of course, if you're not involved in the scavenger hunt, there's still nothing stopping you from approaching! He's taking a well-earned rest since fleeing the attack in Croydon.

Cesare didn't exactly know why he was doing this, but he was. He thought he was beyond childish scavenger hunts but mentions of it had occurred, jokes about volunteering had been made and sure enough Cesare was participating with Nancy. They were a peculiar team, but to be honest, Cesare intended to do most of this on his own and simply have Nancy along for the ride. It wasn't as if Nancy had hundreds of years of knowledge on her side.

When Cesare saw the first clue, he immediately thought anagram, grabbing a pen and paper and scrawling out the letters in a hand that was a little too ornate for the occasion. He was stuck on the word "bridge" for a while, until he lucked upon "Redbright". His obsession with Sylvia had paid off.

He wasted no time and quickly Nancy and Cesare were at Redbright Pavilion. Cesare looked about the space, his brow furrowed. Cesare was always nothing if not competitive.

Lo and behold, there's a brown envelope tied up with a red ribbon to one of the posts on the pavilion. Inside the envelope is a picture of a bird with the words "scientia potestas est" written on the back in elegant handwriting. There's nothing else to find.

Cesare grabs the envelope immediately and rips it open. He frowns at it. "Knowledge is power", he reads aloud as easily as if it were his native tongue. That part is easy enough for him. But then there's some bird on it? He turns to Nancy and hands her the photo.

"It's in the institute still, the answer," he says fairly resolutely. After all, that's where knowledge is acquired. "What do you think?"

Edited (I missed out a quote mark and it hurt my eyes) 2017-04-14 21:34 (UTC)

Nancy frowns at the words and picture. Of course he knows Latin, she isn't surprised at all. Nancy takes the picture of the bird and turns it over slowly. "It's a nightingale. But what does that have to do with knowledge? unless... Is there a faculty member or something with that surname? It's common enough around here."

"Let's find a teacher with the name Nightengale," Nancy says, before leading Cesare off the pavilion. It takes a few minutes for Nancy to ask around, but someone points her in the direction of Thomas Nightengale.

"excuse me, Mr. Nightengale? are you our clue?"

"Mr Nightingale? He's not here."

There are several faculty members present at the event, but Thomas Nightingale isn't one of them. Asking around mostly gets shrugs. Where might he be?

"I don't know. Probably at home."

It is the weekend, after all.

"No, he's definitely here," Cesare replies a little too firmly than he probably should, particularly when he's trying to get people to help him. The clue fits too well for Cesare simply to let it go like that. Cesare likes to think he knows who's who in London. This is no exception. Nightingale seems too convenient.

"He's in Outreach, isn't he? Where's that department?"

The instructor shakes her head. "That's not technically a department. Hey, Yasmine!" She calls over to the Head of the Science Department, who also happens to be a member of the Night Council so no doubt both Cesare and Nancy have seen her before. "Have you seen Thomas Nightingale today? He's not here, is he?"

Yasmine pauses with a cup of tea halfway to her mouth. "He was here this morning helping to set up, but he left early. I think he went home."

Nancy recognizes Yasmine. She'd been there for her trial, and she'd spotted her on the Night Train as well. She smiles sweetly at her. "Could you possibly tell us where his home is located? We think he's the answer to our clue." She shows the picture and words to Yasmine.

"Or if you could point is to someone who could?" Help her out? Please?

Consider it school spirit that Natasha's here. At this point, she doesn't mind the opportunity for a break, and maybe to put her skills to use doing something frivolous. She's not, as she's learning in London, entirely above fun.

"Should we go with the obvious?" Natasha asks, shrugging. It seems as good a place to start as any.

It doesn't take long before they're searching the library for signs of the next clue, starting with the bestiaries.

"Ah." Now Yasmine understands. She thinks for a moment, then nods. "He lives in Camden. A place called the Folly."

She doesn't know the exact address. They can get it at reception if they're keen to double check: it's on Russell Square.

Like every other section of the library, the bestiary is arranged in alphabetical order. A cursory glance over the shelves reveals nothing obvious. They'll have to browse the books themselves.

Are they looking for a particular book? At what letter would they like to start?

The photocopy is too distorted to make out all of the text. Natasha will check the D section to see if she can this specific volume.

"The Folly? Brilliant- thank you so much!" Nancy gives her another bright smile, before turning toward Cesare.

"Alright, so we should get to the nearest tube station-" she barely got to say, before she was reminded of Cesare's favorite way to travel the city. That was: in the back of a limo.

"So what's the plan? Hope his name is on the bell?"

Nancy was not here because of her support of Redbright. Nancy was here because this was a free event for children, and she happened to have a few of them that were interested in going. Fagin, staunchly against the witches at this particular time, as well as Nancy herself, refused to go near the Institute, so the role fell to Nancy.

She'd joined Cesare's team for the egg hunt on a bit of a whim, though that wasn't for a few hours yet. So in the meanwhile, she'll be doing her big sisteryist, and trying to corral a small army of pick-pockets. But you can bet her tea is spiked.

The Redbright Institute was not Daybreak. That's what Evie had to remind herself when she decided to attend the Easter celebration. Her girlfriend (girlfriend! she could hardly believe it) worked there, and it would be nice to have a somewhat public outing together. Amongst people they knew.

She wasn't worried what people thought. Screw them- she was happy. Goodness, she was extremely happy with Natasha, something that showed on her face every time she glanced her way. She'd do near anything she asked, without hesitation, so family-friendly events were part of the package.

Most of the event has Evie wandering- taking a look at some of the crafts in particular, and maybe even eyeing a particularly delicious looking cake.

If Cesare had heard Nancy's monologue, he would explain to her that he does not ride in limos. He finds them tacky and ostentatious, which is a bit rich coming from him. No. Cesare likes riding in the back of expensive black cars with drivers. Bentley or Mercedes, thank you very much.

"I'll call some people," he responds a little dismissively. He's already getting a bit frustrated that he's taking part in some wild goose chase for a man who really should be waiting for him in the school. Or maybe Cesare just bitter that the one statement he made about the clue was wrong.

The two of them ask for the precise address at reception, take a car to Russell Square and soon enough are at the home of Thomas Nightingale. Cesare knocks on the door impatiently.

That is... a lot of books. "Holy fuckin' shit." Of course it is, Ghoul. It's a library. That's what they're for. "There seriously needs to be control-F in real life."

Meanwhile, he starts searching through the G volumes. It's a goblin, so maybe it'll be pretty straightforward.

If they look closely at the page they may be able to spot more clues regarding its origin. There's nothing in the D or G section. The books are arranged in alphabetical order by author, not by title or creature.

[ooc: For some reason the first link I gave made the picture really small! This one should be easier to read.]

They may recognise the words inscribed on the lintel above the door: scientia potestas est. The housemaid might answer the door, but they don't need her because attached above the door is another brown envelope wrapped in red ribbon.

Inside the envelope is a white card and these are the words printed on it:

Coming back to dare me then, I'm saying.

That's it. Clue number three.

Ghoul has (probably obviously) not spent much time in libraries, so of course he comes trudging back around the corner empty handed, aside from the original paper which he's got his face near-buried in again. "Ain't nothin' but a bunch of dudes with G names in that part. Dumbest thing I ever saw."

If this place wants to be completely nonsensical and group things by names instead of titles, god, then fine. He looks for anything name-like, finding a signature beneath the image. The first letter could maybe be a J. Or an A. Or a Z. He's pretty sure the last name starts with an S, though, so he hands off the sheet to Natasha and scurries away towards the S section.

Yeah, he totally stuck her with what he thought was the more difficult search. He's a gentleman.

Looking in the S section, it isn't long before Ghoul finds the right book: Arthur Spiderwick's Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You. Tucked just inside the cover is a brown envelope wrapped in a red ribbon.

Inside the envelope is a white card and printed on it are the following words:

This would have been the name of an American political drama, if it had involved more flatulation.

That's all there is for the second clue.

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Easter fun at the Redbright Institute (Scavenger Hunt!)

GENERAL MINGLE

TEAM NANSARE (NANCY AND CESARE)

TEAM NATOUL (NATASHA AND GHOUL)

ASK MOGGET

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Nancy | OTA

Evie | OTA

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LMAO that's so much better! i was hitting my zoom button like it owed me money

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