The Gold-Bug

I went to the Masque tonight, Inside the building was a note left for me by Sonia.

I will not divulge the contents of the note in full, except to point everyone to this URL that Sonia says must be shared with all. I also feel I should share Sonia's words that "all hunters must come together. I hope that through you the right thing will be done. Please tell everyone to forgive Phil and Grandison."

SNIPURL.COM/GLASSUNICORN

Oh dear after checking the site all day (and wondering what to add of my experience on Saturday), I read this just before I should be drifting off to sleep... I don't know what to think, I will try to sleep and come back tomorrow to hear from you all! Xx

Wow, what a twist!

I think this is more than fair of Sonia and would whole heartedly agree to her proposal.

I'm just glad to have the prospect of more codes to crack - I think I have become rather obessed!

Josh, thank you for bringing us the message.
Sonia, thank you. We will do as you ask.

Only if we all stick together now can we find the treasure! Phil please accept Sonia's conditions! All of us hunters are most eager to hear your thoughts (of all people) on Sonia's final message.

Josh, thank you for the message and thank you Sonia for making a potential harmonious and happy ending possible!

Predicatbly SNIPURL.COM/GLASSUNICORN is a blocked site at my work. Please can someone enlighten me. Perhaps copy and paste onto here? Waiting in eager anticipation.

try
http://rvftfsbtfsb.blogspot.com/

If that doesn't work I can post the whole message if you like

Thanks Bonnie. Unfortunately http://rvftfsbtfsb.blogspot.com/
is blocked also. I would be really grateful if you could post. I don't think I can wait until I get home tonight! Thanks!!

Im heading back into the masque tonight so on an entirely selfish level I hope this reconcilliation can happen swiftly. Out of interest josh, where did you find the note?

a message

Whoever finds this, please circulate the link widely to make sure that all Hunters, Mr Grandison and Phil Harper get to read this.

Hello everybody

If you're reading this, it means that events transpired on Saturday night in one particular way. And that my messenger was successful :)

Forgive me for not contacting you directly and sooner, but as even I write this now, the accusations and counter-accusations are already getting heated, and the present knowledge I've received is the sharp realisation that I need to make sure that there's calm before this is given to you all.

It's true. I resigned your employment, Mr Grandison, having decided that I would work against you for what I considered rightfully mine. I was angry because you'd never told me who I was. I drew some of the sharp-eyed Hunters into my gang (Scooby Gang, yes). And I am wholeheartedly sorry for that deception. But I'd ask you to forgive the Scoobies and assure you that they have remained dedicated, with a continued better sense of the morality than me, never withholding information from you and everyone unless I expressly asked them.

The burning of the code on Saturday will also have been a deception. I need to demonstrate to you, Mr Grandison and Phil, that I am perfectly capable of relinquishing my inheritance for the greater good. But I am sorry for the distress it may have caused you. Hunters all, I am also sorry for the disappointment I can imagine you may be feeling.

It was the only copy, other than the one locked in the vaults of Young Clement Rivers that they will not release to anyone but the next heir of Moray...

...and the one that I made and posted online.

I mean, I am a Moray.. ;)

I'm Sonia Moray. This is my inheritance. I had to make a choice.

As my sad old ancestor put it:
"...yet doubtless y'are remiss if you consider not which greater fortune be
A pirate's bloody loot, or friends and family"

I may be without family but no Moray ever had better friends than you Hunters who have worked to bring us together to this point. I couldn't bear it as Phil was poisoned by his own greed to build such division on top of my deception.

And I insist that all Hunters be forgiven and rewarded by you, Mr Grandison, with one part of whatever is found, as you originally intended. I want no part.

I'm the last Moray and you're the last Grandison. I know that deep down all you've really wanted is the signet ring and an end to the story. I have it in my power but I choose to give it back to you with both an apology and a hope that there is peace now between us.

Phil, I'm sorry too for what I did to you. It's going to take a while - and a sincere apology from you to all the Hunters you accused so viciously - but I hope that us two old friends can make our peace over this business (in a way that two friends in time past were not able).

So...

- I ask that on the main website this message is posted.
- I ask that all members of the Hunters' Club forgive and forget past division and work together with Phil and Mr Grandison to find the treasure's resting place.
- I ask that Mr Grandison is given the signet ring and that all Hunters be given one part of whatever treasure might be found.
- I ask that Mr Grandison posts his agreement to these terms.
- I ask that Phil posts a formal apology to all Hunters.
- And I ask that a representative of the Scooby Gang and a representative of the other Hunters posts agreement and acceptance on behalf of all.

I'll be many thousands of miles away by the time you're reading this, but I'll be checking the site regularly when I'm on terra firma. When all these asks have been met, I will post the link to the code.

Sonia Moray x

Crikey! How intriguing! Thanks Bonnie, much appreciated.

Well I for one think that this is a very gracious offer from Sonia, and I wait with optimism for the necessary responses from Phil and Mr Grandison so that all hunters can once again work together.

Josh - can you satisfy my curiosity and let us know where you found Sonia's message ?

I don't feel it would be fair to Sonia to tell where the note was hidden - I don't expect there will be anything else to find there, so the place is of little significance to us now.

I just noticed Sonia's blogspot heading is que sera sera.
Phil and Mr Grandison, please don't keep us waiting too long. We need a sheet of code to keep us busy.

I was looking (to stave off the boredom while waitng for Phil's reply) at Sonia's symbolism of the glass unicorn, from The Glass Menagerie:
Glass menagerie - Laura’s private world, and the breaking of it.
Glass unicorn - Laura’s singularity, her return to reality, and her return to her retreat back into her world.

well it seems that there was/is another website - shouldn't those people in the "scooby gang" give us all the URL so we can all have the same information?

Linda B - your interpretation of that symbolism is very convincing, although I think that Sonia just chose that name because she was aware that I had just directed The Glass Menagerie. But the symbolism does come together with Sonia's situation in a striking way...I guess art imitates life and vice versa. :)

Linda how bizarre! I had just made the same deduction!

I'd just found this on the internet... Like the glass menagerie Laura's life is based on a fragile illusion and she, like her strange collection of animals are shut off from the real world and frozen in the land of fantasy. The characters just do not seem to move forward into reality they are all trapped like the figures in the menagerie. Laura is stuck in her strange and protective world of her various glass animals... until of course the horn breaks off! And I think perhaps we are all forced to enter reality now. Oh no!

why does no one step forward to represent the scooby gang still? Didn't sonia specifically ask for this to happen? Linda B -when you thank Sonia and agree to do as she asks, are you representing hunters or scoobies?

In my view Sonia has made a proposal which Phil and Mr Grandison need to consider and (I hope) accept. Only if this happens should we expect to see any direct contact from representatives ofthe "Scooby Gang" and "the other hunters". And who are jef and the face ?

In other news, since we're currently enjoying a deluge of honesty at the moment, I'd like to explain the sheet of musical code that some of you ended up getting hold of.

As soon as I decoded Phil's message explaining Sonia's activities I emailed Sonia to pledge loyalty to her. I wasn't completely sure that this was where my heart truly lay but with the confusion and dishonesty pervading, I thought it was best to hear both sides of the story. Anyway, Sonia revealed that she was planning on attending the Masque and I (correctly) guessed that she would be going in on Saturday 15th. I suddenly realised that the 15th was the Ides of March and a threat on someone's life was a possibility. Clearly I had to learn more, so in order to elicit the trust of both Sonia and Phil, I invented the message CAESAR LIKES LAVENDER IN MARCH and encoded it in musical score rhythmically as A=1, B=2 with the unit of semiquaver. (I don't think anyone noticed that it was actually set to the melody from Beethoven's Fifth with its connections with fate and destiny and so forth.) However, I was rather rushed, preparing for a trip to Seville to investigate other casks of Amontillado so I do apologise for the mistakes made. Reading the efforts in the puzzle forum though I was immensely impressed by the tenacity and guile of our members.

Now someone (obviously also working for both Sonia and Phil) sent an anonymous message to Phil revealing that it had been sent to both Sonia and Phil. I received a brusque (but fair) email from Phil asking me to explain myself or be expelled from the Hunters' Club, which I did and apologised for my behaviour. I owe still three apologies - one to Mr Grandison, one to Sonia, and one to those hunters who decoded my spurious music. I hope they will accept that apology now.

I confess, nonetheless, that I found this last week immensely exciting and believe, at least, that I have lost an amount of sleep proportional to my misdeeds.

David S, I'm shocked it was you who sent the musical message. I'm afraid I immediately jumped to the conclusion that it meant "like slaughter" rather than "likes lavender".

the face, I hope I am representing all Hunters in agreeing to join together and solve this mystery.

Steve T, I think Benoit may still have something to tell us. You should ask him tonight. Eugenie may also know something so you could always meet her under the dome (except you have to choose between meeting Benoit and Eugenie as their performances at the end happen simultaneously)

Steve T - go with Eugenie tonight, if you have the choice, as I went with Benoit last night and he played us a recording of an extract from Coleridge's Xanadu. I assume the same would happen to you if you went with him, so choose Eugenie and see where she leads you.

okay. My piano playing friend is coming so its definately eugenie. What does she look like? Previously I was blind to every woman bar lotte.

She is very slightly oriental-looking, especially when she is in the opium den with chopsticks in her hair and wearing a silk kimono. She later wears a short Chinese silk dress and is in charge of the seance. She has her hair up and it is dark.

oh I remember now. Will desperately try to get into séance tonight

You have to hang around the black cat room after 9pm, or follow Eugenie there, though I'm not sure from where -the opium den?

Yes, if you wait around in the black cat room from 9 to 9.15 then you'll get to have the seance with Eugenie.

I thought the seance was quarter to nine

I was there at 8:45 on Saturday and had to hang around for quite a while stroking the cat before Eugenie made her appearance

Wow! Further twists in the tale!

I think we'd all like this little adventure to end on a happy note (unlike most of Poe's stories). So I'm sure all hunters are willing to forgive and forget - especially in the face of overwhelming honesty from a number of hunters and the selfless gestures made by both Sonia and Alex.

I guess it's over to Phil and Mr Grandison...

Eugenie has the meeting with Dupin in the Opium Den before she goes into the Black Cat room. Both times I've made it into the Seance I was there from about 5 to 9. I think she comes in about 9pm, tells the story about Moray's mistress and then shortly after goes into the Seance. Sometimes there's noone there and she has to go out and get people to join, and sometimes there's loads of people in there, so if you are super desperate to make sure you get into the Seance, the best place to be is near the door to the Seance room.

Got in... But by friend managed to ruin it by putting his key back, and eugenie ended the séance! Nothing new to add really. Went to morays chamber at the end. Still the same. Lotte promised me a dance...missed out there.

I'm heartened to read Sonia's message, and hope it can dispel some of the tension between her and Mr. Grandison- and Phil.

Following her ordeal, Sonia has earnt a rest and deserves every happiness.
Having instigated this wonderful search, Mr Grandison deserves the ring so dear to his family.

And if they can find these things, then we get what we deserve- a happy ending. Hooray!

I'm not so sure about Sonia just going away. She doesn't actually fill people with confidence when she just 'disappears' like that. Also, with her gone there is no-one who can really challenge and keep check on Grandison and Phil. If I'm honest, a truly "unified" and balanced Hunter's Club now requires all parties to be present and accounted for.