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[brat-sampson]

Event Roundup (ground team version)

[Juxta]

Afraid that I cannot add anything from the online perspective, or for that matter, a great deal from the ground level (gawd bless a combination of flu and copious amounts of painkillers - I thought it was rather good of those pink elephants and talking badgers to turn up and help us out...uhm...just me then, eh?)

However...having set off in completely the wrong direction, I found what I thought was the answer to the "Box of Delights" puzzle - although, in retrospect, it wasn't a puzzle at all, I just followed the poem's description to a location...the wrong location, as it happens.

Oddly though, I did manage to locate an envelope, duct-taped n'zip-lock bagged up, fastened to a lamp-post, in the general vicinity of the "Box of Delights" map location - apparently, the codebook was also attached to the bench in the same way. The envelope contained a piece of paper, with the number 0870 162 4853 on it - upon calling, you get a recorded message saying "Beacon four activated".

I've not seen any other reason for this to have been there, so, effectively, I'd just like to extend my apologies to whichever other shadowy clandestine organisation was meeting up in Clapham today, for stealing their beacon number, activating it and possibly bringing about the apocalypse. My bad. Sorry.

J

P.S. In all honesty, I think it was actually something PxC connected - the automated voice on the phone line is all too familiar from countless calls into the Receda Somna-Therapy centre. I just don't quite know how it fitted in with anything else that went on today. For what it's worth, the poem referred to "until two poles you see, Both of metal, one stands there tall but the other broken free." The package was attached to a lamp-post...which itself was a replacement for it's rather sorry looking predecessor, which was badly damaged, and leaning over at a 45 degree angle.

[Mokey Fraggle]

Congratulations to everyone for having fun and working on puzzles! Sorry I wasn't online -- wouldn't you know it that the one morning my Internet decides to misbehave is the most important day so far. Oh well. I wore my purple shirt in solidarity ... while I spent hours on the phone to tech help. Thanks for giving the update! I was aching all day to know how it went.

[Juxta]

Public Service Announcement:-

In the event of limited/no interweb access during next live event, please complete the following tasks to ensure full immersion into the spirit of said proceedings.

1: Run. Everywhere. Doesn't matter whether you're going to the bathroom, or heading for Timbucktoo City, 47 miles away, you should always be moving at a brisk trot as a minimum. Extra points awarded if it's in a circle.

2: Fix anyone that you meet with a penetrating stare - if you can convince more than 50% of all people that you encounter that you have a squint or constipation, you're doing great.

3. All objects, refuse and general detritus should be rifled through, in a vain attempt to find "kloos". If it's good enough for bag-ladies, it's good enough for you. Note: the addition of a shopping trolley, with which to collect your garbage is a step too far, primarily because it will hinder your ability to do (1) above, and also because it will draw unwanted attention to you.

4: On the subject of drawing attention to both yourself and the group, the following are all perfectly acceptable, normal behaviour:-

*Encouraging local ducks to try and retrieve articles thrown into their lake and bring them to you.
*Digging through piles of leaves under trees.
*Digging up local parkland in the middle of a saturday afternoon. Bring a spade with you next time if necessary - or a JCB, either is acceptable.
*Attempting to bribe local squirrels to try and retrieve articles thrown into the branches of trees and bring them to you.

5: The addition of a mobile phone to your ensemble will undoubtedly help you to blend in, particularly when combined with some helpful key phrases which can be shouted into it, for seemingly little reason:-

*"I'm with the Earth team! Yes, we're here, now!"

*"The red turnip swivels slowly on the penguin's nose - no, I said turnip, not turkey! What do you think I am, mad?"

*X Road! Ok people, move move move, we have to get to X road now!
(This should be yelled indistinctly over one's shoulder, at speed, as you run off into the distance, adding to the overall confusion and mayhem - feel free to make these locations up on the spur of the moment)

6: For the true "purist" out there however, the final key element is to have a bucket close at hand - if at any stage you feel yourself becoming even vaguely lucid, or having a grasp on the situation, following this protocol could well save your life!

*Stop!
*Duck, and cover.
*Put the duck down.
*Arm yourself with bucket.
*Place bucket on head.
*Extend arms and rotate.
*Spin until a slight nauseau comes upon you.
*RUN!
*Continue in this vein until the moment of clarity has passed.


This has been a public service broadcast, thank you, gentle reader.


J

[oliverkeers13]

OK. Seriously now. Here are some guidlines for any live event.

1. Designate a leader.
He will stay in the same place throughout, he will not help with the puzzles, he will be a point of contact.

2. Designate a leader from each group you split up into.
These people are responsible for contacting the overall leader.

3. Call the leader with ANY information
If you find something, call him immediately.

4. Call and have half hourly (at least) status reports.
We found that if we had stayed in better contact, we would have got further.

5. Have someone with IRC access staying with the Leader.
Common sense, really.

6. Ask for new people's email addresses.
Say it's to "debrief them" or something.

7. Be suspicious.
Many people, myself included, were saying from the start that there'd be a plant. No-one, however, was looking for one.

8. Stay in groups.
The mole slipped away because we weren't staying together. If we'd been better orgainised, we would have been kept in groups of 3, and would have been able to stop him.

That's all I can think of for now. This goes for ALL live events. If you can think of anything else, please add to this.

[European Chris]

In reference to the guidelines it should be added that it's much better to take taxis than to walk so agree the civillised contingent of the day.

[skenmy]

o_O

We may well be the autistic crew, but we never went to Elephant and Castle.
It was suggested, but quickly ruled out.

With regards to Ollies suggestions about further live events, they are all extremely good ideas. Unfortunately I had some problems remaining connected to IRC during the day, but I had a very nice man () whm i remained in constant phone contact with, and I assumed he relayed info to you guys on IRC.

[buzman]

Do we still have access to the puzzles (sudoku, poem etc) from the day? If so, can they be scanned/pictured and posted up here?

Damn my puzzle curiosity!

B

[European Chris]

http://forums.unfiction.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=12833

I'm sure more will be made available shortly.

[FreeMorpheme]

There would have surely have been little point in trying to stop the mole, it was obviously designed from the beginning that he would vanish on the 'copter - and the help he gave us during the day was invaluable, since we all (and lets be honest here) ran about like fools shouting at each other. Although we all found the clues, we did very little in the way of actual solving.

I agree that future 'big' events should be co-ordinated from a central point if at all possible, by someone sitting somewhere with a phone and a big pad of paper, to collate all of the clues as they come in, as the IRC method was a bit slapdash. Nobody really knew what was going on, what had been found, what it all meant, until it was too late.

Having said that, thanks to Reason and his team who found me sitting on a bench after I had solved the Journey's End quest, about a hundred yards from the codebook, where I had been for about twenty minutes wondering just what I was supposed to be looking for.

[Rob_Riv]

Re: Event Roundup (ground team version)

[JebJoya]

Hey all!

Well, just if anyone was wondering, I managed to miss my last train back up to Leamington Spa, and so went back to Reading last night I've got a couple of odds and sods (mainly the fake puzzles from the end) that I'll scan in when I get back up to the uni house, so patience

Just to add a couple of things, when we were in the pub, I saw an advert for 82ASK above a toilet, which claimed to be able to answer any question you sent it, in retrospect, we should have asked "where is the cube?", but instead asked "what is the proof of the Riemann Hypothesis?", and they came back with some stupid load of crap about it being unproven blah blah (meh, true i guess, but still ). I also wandered around to random tables in the pub giving out puzzle cards (I was quite drunk at this time), and a few of us earlier on in the evening got talked to by an old man, for what seemed like forever... I mean seriously, 2 hours or something total, and we couldn't hear what he was saying

We were kicking ourselves in the pub about the mole - there were so many clues! Another one was that he had been the person that went and picked up the third attache case (which we forgot to pick up originally, don't know if we left it buried or not...) Although, to be fair, the day probably went as it was meant to, we were a little slow on clues (well, us lot with the jigsaw weren't, but that's besides the point ), but we got the spectacular ending as was meant

The free drinks were a nice touch as well

Brat - I owe you £5, remembered just after you left, do you have a paypal account?

Umm, yeah, awesome day, looking forward to the next one!

Jeb

[Juxta]

*sighs* Well, I won't attempt humour in future, in case it jeopardises anyone elses attempts to run the entire world.

Suggested additions for next live event:-

Extendable dog leashes - for when "Could you stop running off into the distance leaving the rest of us sat here like idiots, wandering around London getting thoroughly lost in the backstreets of Clapham - not altogether the most salubrious of surroundings" isn't enough.

Tranquiliser dart guns - for when the dog leashes aren't enough.

ACME Co. Ego Massagers (one per group, perhaps have a spare available for the overall UBER leader in case the batteries run out through overuse).

Yeesh.
J


N.B. For the record, I did really enjoy yesterdays events, just...ugh. Never mind.

[brat-sampson]

Hmm, so it was Gauge island, eh? That's weird because the keyword they put into the box was Green so I assumed that was the answer.

I'd nearly managed to forget about that old man, seriously, I try to get along with random strangers when I meet them usually but when you can't understand what they're saying and they talk at you constantly for hours it gets tough. Luckily he left eventually and we could get back to more important matters.

Heh, I completely forgot about the mole also giving us the third attache case, we would've been doomed without him apparently.

[buzman]

I think the online form ended up just checking the Radio answer - you can type anything you like in the other boxes.