Twisted Tavern Group 6

Interacting with : Reducio @Sere Nade, @Minnie Duke, @Lemon Goldfinch, @Yasmin Saade

Outfit: Reducio

Notes: Reducio Speech: #3CB371 Thoughts: italics

A small smile graced Kaitlyn’s lips as she entered the tavern. A quick glance around confirmed her theory - it was a fantasy setting. She loved fantasy books, as her bookshelf in the Dorea Potter dorm would agree with. Not to mention the fantasy books she kept at home. She loved the setting and enjoyed finding an outfit that matched such a great theme.

There was one issue, however. The tavern was empty. No one was at the bar, no patrons, no one playing any music. It was eerily silent. In her opinion, it wasn’t entirely eerie; rather, it was more unusual … and very unexpected. When she heard of a tavern, she envisioned lively adventures telling stories at tables or promising adventurers meeting up to head off on an adventure. Plus, there were the patrons drinking at the bar, and a bard serenaded the patrons with music. This … this just didn’t feel right.

‘I hope this isn’t a sign of what’s to come,’ Kaitlyn frowned. She glanced at the other witches in her group before taking in the scene again. “This looks … worrisome,” she voiced her opinion. Before she started investigating the room, she noticed a sheet of paper nailed to the door. “I think this is our first clue … I’m going to look around first, though,” she said to her group before slowly walking away.

Kaitlyn’s eyes danced around the tavern while walking in slow, graceful movements. As she neared the lute, she noticed pieces behind it. “This lute seems to be … broken, maybe?” she suggested.

Reducio

Note: 262 words

Action:
Investigating the tavern and noticing the broken lute.

Muggle Condition | Lovely Creature
Stamina: 6 | Evasion: 8 | Strength: 4 | Wisdom: 9 | ArcPower: 7 | Accuracy: 6

Date	:	April 11th, 2025
Color code	:	Written|Thought|Said

Another Ball, this time was Spring Ball and Sere Nade was still on a mission to break her own mindset about 'she won't fit into any party vibe'. The theme of this year's Spring Ball was Spring Soirée. Hearing the theme made her imagining about a classic garden party with people chatting while holding their glasses. Thankfully, the theme wasn't as intimidating as last year's Fall Ball, so this time Sere had some amount of confidence to signed herself up for one of the event: Twisted Tavern, another variation of escape game, and also another excitement for her.

Sere straightened her beige dress and perfecting the position of her black belt before entering the Small Hall that had been transformed into a fantasy-like tavern. The details welcomed, making the girl surprised; amazed and confused at the same time. The ball planner had prepared the setting perfectly, but... where were the people, activities and the husty-busty that usually narrated in those fantasy stories?

Too eerie, too empty. Sere tried to approach another girl in the tavern. Her outfit were majestic, the colors reminded her of the elegant peacock's feather. "Hi--" Before Sere had time to greet, she heard the sound of slammed entrance followed by the clicking of a lock. "Huh?" Sere approached the door and found an old brass combination lock that had to be solved. Ah, so they choose this way to start the event. Clever.

Sere heard the girl say something about a clue and observed the door once more. She read the rhyme written in front of her nose and followed the girl's steps -who had been strolling around first- with her eyes. "I'm pretty sure that the clue is related to that lute." Sere finally opened her mouth, walking closer to the girl, "I'm Sere by the way, Sere Nade. Second-year of Gryffindor, Hogwarts. And you?" @Kaitlyn Connor

Sere found the pieces behind the lute and observed that, "Do we have to pluck the lute? Can you play it? Because I can't." She didn't have any knowledge about musical instruments, but her interlocutors mentioned about something broken, which made Sere take out her wand, "Where is the broken part? I can try to fix it."

Reducio

Sere's Look

Action : Entering the tavern, find the lute and the pieces behind it.
Mentioning : @Lemon Goldfinch @Yasmin Saade @Minnie Duke

Thing(s) : Her Wand
Stats : STA 10 (+4)| EVA 9| STR 4 | WIS 8 | ACC 8 | ARC 7
Abilities : Statistically Relevant (STA) | Statistically Relevant (STA)

Interacting with: Reducio @Sere Nade Mentioning: Reducio @Minnie Duke, @Lemon Goldfinch, @Yasmin Saade

Outfit: Reducio

Notes: Reducio Speech: #3CB371 Thoughts: italics

“I agree,” Kaitlyn nodded. The lute was important for storytelling … at least from what she knew about the books she read and video games she played at home. She turned to Sere and smiled at her. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Sere. I’m Kaitlyn Connor, Second-year Hogwarts, Slytherin.” She brushed a stray strand of hair out of her eyes. “I like your dress,” she complimented her.

As Sere neared the lute, Kaitlyn continued her slow, methodical movements. With each graceful step, her sandals quietly tapped against the ground. Her wand twirled slowly around her fingertips, just in case. She wasn’t looking to show off or anything. They were grouped together for this event, and she had no problem working with others. This reminded her of muggle escape rooms, which she had no experience with. She merely heard of what they were.

Glancing back at the lute, Kaitlyn frowned and shook her head. “I don’t know how to play the lute,” she admitted. “I know how to play the piano, but I doubt that would help for this. If we do need to play it, I can try.” She liked being helpful, at least to the best of her ability. Stretching her neck carefully, she noticed the pieces behind the lute. “They’re behind it.” She gave Sere an encouraging smile before turning on her toes to continue her inspection of the room.

Reducio

Note: 233 words

Action:
Talking to Sere and investigating the tavern.

Muggle Condition | Lovely Creature
Stamina: 6 | Evasion: 8 | Strength: 4 | Wisdom: 9 | ArcPower: 7 | Accuracy: 6

Date	:	April 11th, 2025
Color code	:	Written|Thought|Said

Kaitlyn Connor. Sere finally knew the name, that the girl also came from Hogwarts and was in the same year as herself. The Gryffindor girl thanked Kaitlyn for her compliment. She didn't need to compliment her back, because anyone could see from a glance that Sere's sight had been admiring how majestic Kaitlyn looked like from the start. The Slytherin walked so gracefully, strolling around the room, whether she fell deeply with her role in this Twisted Tavern or it was just her habit. Sere would ask her later.

Kaitlyn responded, telling her that she couldn't play the lute either. "Umm... Maybe if we really need to do that later, please try playing it." Sere scratched the back of her head, had absolutely zero understanding whether lute and piano had some correlations so that Kaitlyn could play it without knowing the basic. She hoped the lute wouldn't need to be played, because if it did, well, maybe they would be in this tavern for a longer time.

"Ah, so what you mean is the pieces behind it?" Sere examined the pieces behind the lute, still unable to identify it, "Honestly I don't---" @Kaitlyn Connor

Huh? Just as she was about to express her confusion, Kaitlyn had disappeared from her side again. Sere found the girl moving away from her and dancing around the room, again, still with the methodical pace that seemed to match her outfit. After considering for a moment, Sere decided to try to fix the broken pieces anyway. Alright, let's hope this work fine.

Reducio

Sere's Look

Action : Casting Reparo to fix the pieces behind the lute.
Interacting with : this group, tagged.

Thing(s) : Her Wand
Stats : STA 10 (+4)| EVA 9| STR 4 | WIS 8 | ACC 8 | ARC 7
Abilities : Statistically Relevant (STA) | Statistically Relevant (STA)

Although it was only Kaitlyn and Sere who had begun on the riddles, they were working well in tangent. Kaitlyn examined the lute, only to find that it was, in fact, a perfectly normal lute. Sere, however? Upon finding the white shards behind the lute on the stage, she casted the mending spell hinted at by the original clue, and received a simple white mug in return. The white mug was plain save for a number 2 engraved on the side, if she or anyone else looked inside of the mug they would find not one but two pieces of paper on it. On one, it said:

it appears your wit needs to be enhanced,
look for the potion where you entranced.

The other, not as plainly written, said:

By max tglpxk mh max vhwx rhn lxxd,
Maxg max gxqm wbzbm rhn gxxw bl makxx,
Hger hgx fhkx tgw rhn'ee ux ykxx
Max gxqm bl ghm xtlber yhngw,
T lmkbgz hy fxfhkbxl tehnw,
Fnlbv matm pbee ftdx rhn ikhnw.

In the meantime, it appeared that Kaitlyn was wondering around the tavern, searching for anything out of place. Perhaps this next clue would give her a bit more to think about. The ominous air in the Tavern remained, with the unpleasant feeling that something was off very much present as the two solved the first clue and moved on with the second. The potions beside the door they came through were looking very interesting now. How might they be used properly? Which one of them were they supposed to pick? It seems it may be a game of luck, but perhaps skill could be carefully implemented in this exercise. Only time would tell, and although they were that much closer to their escape, it was made obvious: there was still a long way to go.

Group #6 players: @Minnie Duke, @Kaitlyn Connor, @Yasmin Saade, @Lemon Goldfinch, @Sere Nade

I have taken over rolls for this round due to @Janosch Dehoff’s absence.

Rolls:

Reducio

Sere mending spell WDC: 9
[d20 : 6] + 8 = 14
14 > 9, success!

Edit: a missing word was found in the encoded clue. This has been resolved, and we apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused.

Interacting with: Reducio @Sere Nade Mentioning: Reducio @Minnie Duke, @Lemon Goldfinch, @Yasmin Saade

Outfit: Reducio

Notes: Reducio Speech: #3CB371 Thoughts: italics

‘Sere seems pretty cool to me,’ Kaitlyn observed. She had to admit, she liked this fantasy setting. From her experience with dancing, she was already nimble and graceful. Was she playing up due to their setting? A little. But her movements tended to mirror how she normally acted. ‘It would be cool to dance in here.’ Kaitlyn nodded at Sere’s remarks. “If we need to, I can certainly try,” she offered. It would be interesting, at any rate. She nodded again as Sere mentioned the pieces behind the lute. “I believe so,” she replied.

Launching into a pirouette, Kaitlyn stopped next to Sere. Giving her a supportive smile, she stepped next to the other girl. After Sere cast the spell, she leaned over slightly. “Good job, Sere,” she whispered.

Tilting her head to the side, Kaitlyn approached the white mug. A number 2 was on it. Inside were two sheets of paper. One note about a potion. The other was … to put it mildly, a mixture of nonsense. A bunch of letters that looked entirely undecipherable. But the young Snake had seen something like this before. While she attended St. Ann’s all-girls Catholic boarding school with her twin sister, Abigail, they routinely learned other strange topics in their free time.

One of which was exactly what this appeared to be. A way to convey a hidden message, but to make it unreadable to those without the key. It was a clever way to hide information in plain sight. Kaitlyn and Abigail sometimes wrote notes to each other using it. Back then, they had paper and pencils to brute force the method. It would be much harder here, without writing tools. It would likely take a while, especially if she tried it by herself.

“This looks like a Caesar Cipher. It’s fairly long, which means the way to decode it will sadly take a while,” Kaitlyn observed. It would also require pattern recognition with the letters. Correctly guessing even just a handful of letters would break the code. The question was … just how to break it.

Reducio

Note: 347 words

Action:
Observing the notes in the mug, honing in on the 'nonsense' written on the second note, and identifying it as a Caesar Cipher.

Muggle Condition | Lovely Creature
Stamina: 6 | Evasion: 8 | Strength: 4 | Wisdom: 9 | ArcPower: 7 | Accuracy: 6

THIS IS NOT A MODERATION POST.

Due to unforeseen changes, your moderator for Twisted Tavern Group 6 has changed and is now: @Alyss Gilmour.

Please include moderated actions in your posts or OWL your respective moderator your moderated action per round.

Do NOT OWL your moderator actions such as 'talking to (character)', this is purely to get the activity moving.

You have 24 hours from this post to finalise actions and post with a minimum 200+ word count as per site rules should you have not posted during this round already.

We'd like to express our sincerest apologies in the issues which arose during the duration of your game and hope the remainder of your time will serve as enjoyable.

GROUP 6

@Minnie Duke, @Kaitlyn Connor, @Yasmin Saade, @Lemon Goldfinch, @Sere Nade.

Action: Looking at the potions and seeing if there is anything on them.

Interacting With:@Kaitlyn Connor and @Sere Nade

Word Count: 212/200

OOC Notes: Reducio Speaking: b38900 Thinking: Italics

↜↝

Outift: Reducio A black and yellow sweatshirt, jeans, and her satchel.

Date	:	April 11th, 2025
Color code	:	Written|Thought|Said

"Reparo!"

Sere casted The Mending Charm and the pieces behind the lute merged, formed a white mug with the number 2 on it. She immediately stored the number in her memory. A 'good job' from Kaitlyn made her create a little smile, who knows since when the majestic girl approached Sere again.

The mug contained two pieces of paper. Sere's hand opened the first one and the clue written quite clearly said that they needed to check the colorful potions that she saw earlier on the table to the left of the entrance. Her hand opened another paper and this time she found a very random combination of letters. "Whoa..." Sere blinked, "We definitely have to use our brain now."

She was sure that the combination of letters would mean something else, which meant the options were between Anagram and Caesar Cipher. Before she could decide, Sere heard Kaitlyn confidently state that the second option was the answer. Sere observed the combination of letters and found a combination of letters with apostrophe on the third line: rhn'ee. "You're right, this must be Caesar Cipher." Sere continued, "The two E's after the apostrophe on the third line are supposed to be L, so E = L," @Kaitlyn Connor

The girl lifted her face, looked at Kaitlyn while nodding in agreement, "Yeah, this is going to take quite a while with no writing tool." She sighed, "There's no other way. Let's split it in half and try to decode it carefully. I'll take the bottom half." Sere brought the paper to the nearest table from them and sat down on one of her chairs. She placed the paper on the table so Kaitlyn could read it too.

Taking another short time to look around the Tavern, she found one other students was examining the potions. Sere recognized the girl, they were in the same tent at last year's Summer Camp. Minnie Duke, she remembered that was the girl's name. If she was not mistaken, Minnie was also from Hogwarts. "Please let us know if you find anything, because one of the clue told us to check out the potions!" @Minnie Duke Sere spoke a little louder, hoping Minnie would hear her. Then, she went back to what she had to do. Her lips began to mumble in alphabetical order to reword the nonsense written.

Reducio

Sere's Look

Action : Using a very muggle -Caesar Cipher- way to solve the random words.
Interacting with : this group, tagged.

Thing(s) : Her Wand
Stats : STA 10 (+4)| EVA 9| STR 4 | WIS 8 | ACC 8 | ARC 7
Abilities : Statistically Relevant (STA) | Statistically Relevant (STA)