The Gold-Bug

Now I think it's safe to say this night deserves it's own thread. I cannot help but think back to Sonia's birthday and consider that Grandison's entrance into the MOTRD and the Club's first meeting with its benefactor will likely be even more momentous than that night. On a personal note I find it quite amusing that this was the night that I was drawn into the hunt even though I spent the evening manning the cloakroom quite oblivious to what was transpiring in the hall.

Now, onto to the matters at hand. Disregarding for the moment the issue of who actually is fortunate enough to receive the roles of being Mr Grandison's escorts, it might be helpful to find out who plans at the very least to get themselves in on the Hunter's guestlist if not try to get tickets to the performance itself.

Also, it might be useful to discuss ideas and possibilities for how the Club might join together at the Masque. In addition, I'm not suggesting everyone mobs Eugenie or Benoit but if people arrive for the finale it does leave an opportunity open to see either her or Benoit. After all, we don't want to miss out on what either of them have to say that evening...

Well, aren't I the observant one today? Oh well, nevermind.

That's very interesting Silent Servant -I may have seen you in the cloakroom on Sonia's birthday. I asked if anyone had seen Sonia. I was wearing a red/blue shot silk shirt. I was surprised that none of you seemed to know anything about Sonia or the hunt (I'm glad you do now).
I am planning to be there on the 15th, hopefully at the Masque and definitely at the late. Will you be working or visiting?

I'm afraid I cant come at all on Saturday - I am very upset. I look forward to hearing your detailed accounts of the proceedings on Sunday. Best of luck...

I'd like to the there but would only make the trek out to darkest Battersea if I were one of the fortunates to be granted tickets for the Masque beforehand as well as the Hunter's Party. Failing that I'll be there in April for my final visit <sniff> of the run anyway!

You know what, this thread might be good for discussing particulars while Bonnie's earlier one would be a good place to sound off and see how many we got coming.

After this weekend's events I shall definitely be there.

Joe- there may be more to come, considering the 'extra special' equinox party on the 22nd. Which I can't go to as i'm away over Easter.
The rest of us will bring recording equipment and youtube as much as we can for you ;)

I propose yellow/gold stuff ... not many people have yellow clothes so should be fairly obvious who we are!

gee. I don't have anything gold or yellow. Well, my hair is blonde. Does that count?

Should do! Or, tip to the wise: £3, or 2 for £5 will get you a yellow scarf on Oxford St. What can I say, I have expensive tastes.

would just wearing a daffodil buttonhole count ?

what was wrong with the thread started by Bonnie Parker '15th March 2008' that this one is needed? Are there 2 different discussions going on?

I'll be wearing a gold tie at the very least, and shall 'endeavour' to get hold of some gold masks and gold bug badges.

I'm sure I will find a golden accessory too!

I'll be wearing golden shoes

I was thinking tights perhaps? Or belt? I will have a think!

I dont think I have anything gold to wear. Perhaps a post it note? but i suppose thats yellow really. No. I guess I need to think about this some more....

I think yellow is OK. And a Post-It is an excellent idea, so long as you glue it on....

unless i make it to the shops before saturday i think i will also be wearing golden shoes only... maybe a golden headband...

How so very tragic. For all the appropriate intents of Silent Servant creating a thread that is supposedly important, it has now degenerated into "omg! what shall I wear on the 15th of March?!? *squeal* repost *rhetorical question* *repost*"

This is the girly 15th March thread... the other one is the serious one. I advise recluse and anyone else who gets grumpy easily at this sort of chat to not come back here.

well, I thought this thread was about how we could recognise each other /meet up on Saturday. But perhaps we could approach this in a slightly more sensible fashion - should we try to meet up (at The Lavendar ?) prior to entry to the masque on Saturday ?

yes, i like sensible actually and therefore say yes to a pre-meet! sounds like a plan! (will have to do my outfit planning off-board now, sigh!)

Do it.

Chill recluse. this hasn't always been a relaxed board. Just look at the number of topics the place has- if we wanted to be succinct and always to the point we'd all still be posting in the large 'Tales from 66 Street' thread. Yes, the forum is slightly sprawling at the moment but as long as people can easily pick out which bits interest them and which mean little to them there's no reason to bitch at people.

Just be glad the place has been very lucky and hasn't had any trolls to speak of yet.

I have to agree with Silent Servant, Recluse. It's a sprawling board for a sprawling hunt. Mr Grandison has always preferred people to speak than stay silent, and wants everyone to 'play nice', including towards the marvellous Bonnie, who was the first to post from Moray's Chamber, after all.

Yes, huzzah for Bonnie. And her golden shoes!

Recluse. Anything up? You were a happy hunter when we met! Hope all OK, but no apology for all three of my off-hunt posts I'm afraid. I hope you will be there on 15th (and in something we can easily guess is hunter-garb, given that it doesn't sound like you are going to tell us here now!) : )

Updated maps!

both here and here

very nice Peter!

I second that emotion

The maps are excellent, Peter. Love the tiny details.

peter your maps are ace.

I cant come on Saturday - but I think you should definitely meet in the Lavender before hand. The answer to the sheet of music code would suggest something heavy might be going down there, dont you think?

Before I make a plonker of myself, can someone just confirm Eugenie's real name. :)

Hope to see some of you tonight at the after party.

I'll probably be the one nearest the bar!

I can't be there. I want FULL DETAILS. I shall be checking tonight and tomorrow. At least I hope Bonnie will have a few (thousand) words to say!

so its the ides of march some one had better beware! but who? sure that we'll find out tonight.

Well Mr. Grandison was there, as promised, escorted around by Peter A and Alex B. At around 11pm, the DJ was stopped and an MC introduced Mr. Grandison who announced that come of the hunters "have not been true" to him, and that "it is time for [him] to know who [they] are".

Phil took over the microphone and did most of the talking next. He gave a background story of how he met Sonia in college, and that it was her enthusiasm in the hunt which roped him in. He also announced that she had been gathering a breakaway group trying to cheat Mr. Grandison of the gold, and that Mr. Grandison's only interest was in the signet ring which is part of the treasure. He also stated that the sheet of code which Sonia inherited and had given Mr. Grandison was fake, and at that moment, Alex B proceeded to tear a piece of paper to shreds several times. Sonia had withheld the real sheet of code, an important link to where the treasure was. Phil had been carrying a locked briefcase with him the entire evening, which he announced contained the book originally owned by Moray (the book we all need with the underlined words.) Therefore, in order to weed out the dishonest hunters, he proposed to play a game:

Each hunter had to make one accusation (per person) against a fellow hunter as being part of Sonia's team. When a hunter had received three accusations, they would be thrown out of the hunter's club. Should a hunter abstain from making an accusation, they themselves would be counted as a suspect and count as one accusation. The game would only end when the breakaway group had been identified or if Sonia herself (which they believed was present) showed herself.

We proceeded to the dome where the present hunters formed a circle. We had to announce our own name, and then state the name of (or point at) the hunter they wished to accuse. Only hunters present last night could be accused. Phil received three votes, Bonnie Parker recieved 2, Plagiarist received 3 votes, Linda B received 2, Peter A received 3. Most of the rest of us self-nominated.This went on till a steward without a mask(Peter A said it was Benoit Hellier) stepped into the circle and announced, "There is a message from Sonia Moray."

He led us back into a curtained section of the corridoor just outside the Archive room where we gathered, along with Mr. Grandison. "Show yourself, Sonia," he said towards the adjar door as the steward opened it and there she was. "Before you say anything, please allow me to speak my mind," she said. Sonia accused Phil of running the club for the purpose of "lining [his] pockets" and Mr. Grandison of "manipulating [her] for [his] own selfish gain", that the gold did not belong to her or him or the person before him or before that. "In spite of what my great grandfather did, I am still proud to be a Moray," she added.

"Once a thief, always a thief!" said Phil.

"As cheesy as it may sound to you I have come to treasure friendship," she said, "I have no family but I have made a few good friends, some of whom are here now." She then reached out her hands to Mr. Grandison and said, "I hope we can resolve this peacefully." Mr. Grandison looked distressed, shook his head and said weakly, "Never....never."

"Very well then," said Sonia.

She nooded to the steward who brought out a bucket with pieces of crumpled paper which looked like code in it, and a candle into the middle of the small group of hunters. (I personally wanted to rush in and grab the sheets of paper before he could put the candle into the bucket but I thought I might end up burning someone in the event of a scuffle) He proceeded to set it alight amidst the silence while she slipped away back into a corridoor. We watched the paper burn until the steward put it out with another bucket filled with sand.

Dazed and bewildered, we stumbled back out to the dome. I saw Phil leave hurriedly clutching the suitcase.

So he's got the book with the underlined words, the real sheet of code is (supposedly) destroyed, Sonia suggested that someone in the group last night were her "friends". Now what?

I am in no doubt there will be many more detailed and infinitely more eloquent summaries of tonight’s events posted soon. But the shock of what I saw and heard means I can’t help but post my thoughts as soon as possible, in the hope that by posting I will get some peaceful sleep tonight. I know there are many here who suffer the same way and hope that by pouring the goldbug out of my head and onto the page, I may achieve some respite.
I can only tell you what happened after hours but that was quite enough drama for one evening. Hopefully Mr. Grandison’s hunting party, Peter and Alex, and the others inside the masque tonight will have more to say soon.
When I arrived, (drenched I might add- proper Poe weather in Battersea tonight), I was greeted on the door by Phil (who appears to have been cloned from my brother in law. Phil- from now on you will be known as John Junior if that’s ok with you).
I then had the honour of meeting Mr Grandison, a fine gentleman who told me he had a wonderful time at the masque tonight. It was also a great pleasure to meet so many of you hunters, some not for the first time. I met Tom, Phil’s ever so mysterious and heretofore invisible sidekick as he and phil had accompanied Mr Grandison.
Tom told me in no uncertain terms that Sonia had been seen in the masque, and that a break away group was suspected! Tom suggested that Grandison might be prepared to make a deal with Sonia to share the treasure and end the deception and division of effort that a splinter group had created.
Mr Grandison then gave a fine speech to all assembled. He expressed his thanks to the hunters who had helped him come so far. Mr Grandion confirmed that a group of break away hunters lead by Sonia had been identified. They would lose their share of the treasure and be expelled from the hunters club. A shock for sure, the notion posited hypothetically in Phil’s special puzzle a reality?
But it was soon clear that the certainty was actually merely a suspicion. So Phil, Tom gathered the hunters together under the dome in a circle. Phil invited the hunters to pick one other as traitor, as a member of Sonia’s little club. Where a hunter was picked three times they were identified as a hunter loyal not to Grandison but to Sonia . The consequences of identification would be expulsion.
So this was a Kangaroo Court. Played out was a disgraceful display of accusation and counter accusation with Phil and Tom insinuating they had evidence against one hunter in particular, Bonnie P! Alex Bowley, Phil Harper (for it is he), The Flagrant Plagarist and Peter A were also accused!
What was heart-warming were the number of hunters prepared to accuse themselves. In fact it was clear to me that those accused were being targeted by Phil and Tom, even though BP has been a most diligent, helpful and bright star in the hunt. She certainly helped me get my head round a good number of the puzzles set. And Peter A providing the wonderful maps- in fact even Phil cant believe that Peter A was truly a member of a breakaway group? If that is the case there’s a stonking great misjudgement on Phil’s part as he himself chooses Peter A for the hunting party!
It was clear that Phil and Tom had decided to accuse these particular hunters but offered nothing to back up there ill-judged accusations. They merely said they had received some information from a ‘mole’ in Sonia’s camp!
I didn’t see one convinced hunter. Sad as it is for me to say, and I mean it in the nicest possible way, but I think Phil’s concentration has been distracted a little from the task in hand which was to find the treasure as Mr Grandison’s hunters. We were all there with that aim Phil, so why the muck slinging?
But, so much more transpired for as these hunters were subjected to the full force of Phil and Tom’s accusations, we were interrupted and lead next to the scytales room where Sonia herself arrived.

Sonia explained her reasons for passing a fake code to Grandison. Alone in the world, and until the age of 25, oblivious to her infamous predecessor, her decision to pass a fake code can only be judged as prudent, at least until more clarity of the justification of any claim one or other party may have had on the treasure could be achieved.
She acknowledged that the treasure belonged rightfully to neither Grandison nor herself. We should not forget the bloody origins Captain Kidds treasure, found buried along with the bodies of the sailors who could have given its location away.
Sonia was prepared to come to an accommodation but Mr Grandison refused! And in that intractable moment, Sonia sacrificed the real code, burning it front of us and disappearing into the night.
Perplexed is not the word. But I think I may sleep better now!

Think you've both covered it... I'm just off to lick my wounds. It has shaken my trust in the good sense of Phil (and Mr Grandison, if he was involved in orchestrating it).

The silver lining was that it really was good to meet so many of you people. I would like to think we'll meet again. Apart from maybe the two of you who accused me... you may need to apologise for picking on me first.

The impression I got was that both Mr Grandison and Sonia were in different ways deeply affected by the history of the Grandison/Moray/pirate treasure affair. Sonia,however, appeared (and appearances are all we have to go on) to be more prepared to let the matter go and continue with her normal life. But then, she hasn't lived with things for the length of time that Mr Grandison has. Nevertheless, I tend to feel that the accommodation she offered to Mr Grandison would probably have been the best way forward for all concerned if only Mr Grandison had been able to conquer his obvious (and understandable) animosity to the whole Moray clan.
Alas, it appears now that the treasure (whatever it is) and the signet ring must go forever undiscovered.

I think both Recluse and Robbly covered the evening's events quite nicely. I have only to add in terms of my own experiences inside the Masque and also those involving me being accused by Phil.

It all started the other day and sorry for not having shared this with you fellow hunters earlier, but I was so confused by it all.

As everyone presumably heard back about whether they had made it into Grandison's hunting party, I received an email from Phil saying that he had confirmation from a 'mole' that I was in this breakaway group he had been talking about in his special puzzle. It was an accusation of the weirdest kind, because he didn't provide any evidence nor did he tell me that I was excluded from the hunt. Instead he bizarrely offered me a double share of the treasure if I told him whether Sonia was coming to the Masque! And he said that the mole was to receive nothing.

Now I really was confused by the email as you all probably would've been had you received one like it (I know you are going to laugh, but I thought Phil had sent this to every hunter in some sort of game plan, but as it turns out it was just me! It seems that Phil thought that I was the only one in Sonia secret group! Haha, imagine how uninhibited I'd be able to post in the other forum - millions of postings of a trivial and unedited kind all by me!)

Anyway, I digress. There was something else in the email he mentioned too. The genuine sheet of code. Some of you might be confused by all this talk of the real code being burned, etc, so let me explain. Apparently Phil and Grandison had the wrong code. The code we've all been staring at blankly is actually fake. And Phil knew this. And Sonia burnt the only copy of the real one last night.

Going back to the accusations. They already started before we all had to stand in a circle. During the meet and greet we had with Mr Grandison, Phil and Mr Grandison's sidekick told me that I'd behaved suspiciously during my visit to the Masque! He had deducted this from the fact that I had sat in the Palais Royal for a glass of champagne near the table to where Phil and Mr Grandison were sitting! Oh my. Well, I was too busy dancing and being serenaded to by the lovely man in the orchestra to be engaging in any kind of suspicious behaviour! Whatever that would entail anyway. I also bumped into them in the attic. Which again was suspicious, apparently. I'm so glad I didn't bump into them again, otherwise God knows what Paul's overactive mind would've come up with.

In any case, the naming and shaming Phil started off by naming me! I of course had to name him! I mean if I had to suspect anyone of foul play it would be him (no offense). And then Zoe voted for me too. I had aroused suspicion because I had told her that I hadn't worn my golden shoes because I wanted to stay incognito. As you can now see, after already having been accused of being some sort of traitor by Phil in advance of last night, I wanted to enjoy the Masque without being watched like a hawk by Phil. Clearly, shoes or no shoes, it didn't matter, they knew who I was.

At one point during the proceedings, Paul even shouted let's kill off Bonnie. How mean! I feel for FP, because when Alex Bowley named her for a third strike it was horrible. Not that it means anything now, because the treasure is gone.

It was lovely meeting you all... Linda, Rosie, Karen, HelloDean, Robbly (again), FP (again), Peter A (again), Steven Taylor, Zoe, Heather, Steve M and his delightful daughter Harriet, Dominic and I think someone else whose name now eludes me. And not forgetting Mr Grandison, Phil and Paul. Although of course, being seen talking to me already makes you suspicious. So beware! It was also nice to put some faces to names even if I didn't get chat to you (probably safer anyway! haha)

oops. Phil's sidekick who is Grandison's personal advisor is called Tom not Paul. I'm rubbish with names clearly. I also forgot to mention that it was lovely meeting you Alex B (even if you did name FP) and Silent Servant (again!) too. And the mystery person whose name I forget was with Steven Taylor. Sorry I forgot your name. And sorry I didn't get to talk to you Recluse. Even though you have told me off twice, it would've been lovely to meet you.

I can only echo that it was lovely to meet so many fellow hunters, even if evens did turn a bit sinister towards the end.

Though I would have preferred Mr Grandison to make peace with Sonia, I have to say he did well staying so late, as he seemed rather tired.

Is there any reason to believe that it was the REAL code that was burned last night. If Sonia is trying to keep the treasure for herself, and her own group of hunters (*cough Bonnie) then why not pretent to burn the code in front of us, making us believe the trail is now cold and she has let the matter rest.

Lovely to meet you all last night. You all seem like a throughly decent bunch of people...., except for those of you with designs on Lotte.

Yes Steve T, you make a rather good point. In fact Sonia and myself have already found the treasure and I'm currently typing this as I'm sitting on the beach in the Caribbean (oh the wonders of wifi) sipping cocktails. Good thing I didn't have to share my share of the treasure with any of you! haha...

Steve, I think that will be all the boys! I could name at least two who have crushes on dear Lotte!

P.S. On a more serious note. If it is case that Sonia has not actually burned the true code then we still will have to see some sort of reunion between Sonia and Grandison, because he has the key to the code, i.e. the underlined Voltaire book. Ohhh, I wonder when the big showdown will take place....

At the risk of getting in trouble for overzealous posting again, I just had to add - Charlie Fish (sorry, forgot you as well above) - what a cool goldbug you sported on your face!

What despondence, Bonnie! I suspect you still have a role to play somewhere... I'm sort of glad I'm writing this from Seville - I tend to be too judgmental if given the opportunity.

Don't know where this leaves us but I'm back in on the 20th = Thursday. Anything I can do for snyone?

Actually, I've had a thought. If the 'real' code actually has been burnt, perhaps one might be able to get a look at it as it would have been in the time of the Masque???