A Winter Meeting SHC Open

It seemed her luck had turned. Unlike the last time she'd attempted to search, she struck gold. First, she located the riddle she'd been looking for - along with an attached chocolate bar and token. She separated the treats and put them in her pocket, along with her previous riddle; she assumed she wouldn't need it from this point onward. Then she stepped away from the shelf, skimming her eyes over the surroundings again.

Again, gold caught her eye. One was on a desk, perhaps taped, and she approached it. Locating the source, she found it to be another chocolate frog. Although it was no clue, it was another sign of her success, so she took it with a faint grin. And again, she found another sign of gold a few desks over. She quickly moved towards it, looking around as if a criminal before examining it. As per usual (it seemed) the prize was a chocolate frog. She took this one too, sliding both of the treats into her pocket (thank the gods for the existence of mens' jeans, otherwise there would have been no space).

She was pulled from her head by Katrina's movement, turning towards the girl. From the looks of it, the redhead had something to say. She stood quietly, listening to the abundance of words she seemed to be staying. Then the scroll she took and unrolled, the spell and the consequential effects, the explanation. It seemed like something she would find off the internet, but nothing that she would have ever experienced in real life. It made her eyes go a little wide.

As soon as the paper was set out, she was one of the first ones to it. It made a little sense, but some of it made a bit less. Given the numerous lines, she could (probably) go by each one. At least, for the first section.

What is full of holes but still holds water? She didn't really know on that one. It was a mystery and would remain so until someone else solved it.

When does today come before yesterday? Her first guess was tomorrow, or maybe the present. Quietly, she voiced her thoughts to anyone who bothered to listen.

What gets bigger the more you take away? That was another mystery for her. It frustrated her, not knowing the answer.

But thankfully, she wouldn't have nearly as much a challenge with the last one. What has a head and a tail but no body? "A coin!" she said easily, then winced at her volume.

But then the second part sent her through a loop. At first, she thought maybe it could be talking about the words in the first part. But, "When what water a" didn't make sense at all. Maybe it was one of those things where you rearranged the words or letters, but she couldn't see much to it.

Then the last part, which didn't make much sense either. In the typical sense it did, but not in the way of riddles. What was the point of it exactly, if it was so simple? It simply seemed to be spelling something out for them.

But maybe there was something more?

She thought she'd mull over it while telling Katrina the names she knew. Quietly, she walked up, half-distracted. "I knew Michael, who I think left, before the hunt. I'm not sure if that still counts since he left, though. I suppose I also knew Evelynn from other hunts, but not very well. And... that's it." When mentioned Evelynn's name, she pointed to the girl.

Then she took a few steps towards the riddle again, but hesitated slightly; was she supposed to do something in particular? Wait? Or was she good to go back?

collecting her rewards || approaching Kat with names
interacting with @Katrina Walker
mentioning @Evelynn Decipio

[font=century gothic]

OPEN TO INTERACTION

[/font]

[font=century gothic]INTERACTING WITH @Katrina Walker[/font]

[font=century gothic]MENTIONING @Michael Miller and @Sapphire Riddle[/font]

A swish, a flick, a quietly uttered incantation, and soon enough the blanket of interest found itself hovering a foot off the ledge. For but a moment. Hardly a few seconds had gone by before it fell right back to its resting place. Granted, that short time was all that Evelynn had needed to identify that there were no hidden treats among its folds, but that hardly offered any reassurance to what she considered to be a failure of her spell. With furrowed brows, she redirected her attention to her wand. Holding it at eye level, she angled it to catch the light of the room. With every turn of the implement, her gaze scanned its length for any sign of wear, any loss of lustre, any nick or scratch. Finding nothing, her lips pursed disapprovingly.

"Come now.." she muttered under her breath to her wand.

It had become quite well known to her over the course of the last year and a half that the rumours about unicorn cored wands was quite true. Granted, their melancholy was supposed to be reserved for cases of severe mis-handling. As far as Evelynn was concerned, she had never seriously mishandled anything at all, least of all her wand. In fact, she took great care to treat it as kindly and reverently as was reasonable, polishing its wood each night before bed and inspecting it carefully in the morning prior to use. Even still, she'd found that hers could be a touch sensitive, needing regular upkeep throughout the day and that it was occasionally prone to fits of mis-temper on days where she made heavy use of it. Perhaps this was another such situation.

Flaring her nostrils, she huffed an exhalation of displeasure, but reached nonetheless into her side bag for a microfiber cloth. She took to polishing her wand with absent interest, allowing her gaze to wander around the room. Several students were still milling about, but it seemed the party was beginning to lose its interest at least for some members. The boy who had bumped into her (@Michael Miller) without so much as an apology took his leave. She couldn't say she was sorry to see him go. (No ill will here ^_^ Evelynn can just be a bit prissy at times) Elsewhere, Riddle and another girl were still hunting, and still finding things.

Not wishing to be outdone, Evelynn stashed her wand back into the inside lining of her boot. Turning back towards the window with the intent to give the heap of a blanket one last shooting glance, she stopped. Eyes narrowed, head tilting slightly. For a second, a glimmer of gold had caught her attention. As she stared at the candle from which the glint had come, however, she could only conclude that it had been a trick of the flame. She was about to turn away, to continue her hunt elsewhere, when it struck again. Reaching for the candle, she pulled it from its resting place. Entirely unexpected, an immediate reward met her in the form of another chocolate frog that had sat just behind.

Naturally, she plucked that up in a heartbeat, slipping it into her bag alongside the other partially finished one. She didn't open this one, and so there was no need to immobilize the frog within. With that treat stowed away, she took a closer look at the candle. As much as the frog was a nice little surprise, it hadn't been something behind the candle that had caught her eye, but rather something inside. Sure enough, there, hidden within the ring of the harmless blue flame, was a sherbet lemon. With veiled glee, Evelynn fished it out. As much as she liked chocolate, she found that its savoury taste and the creamy coating of chocolate over her tongue could be a little overwhelming after very little. Citrus and berry flavours were by far her favourite treats. Sherbet lemons in particular always won her interest.

A call of attention from Walker prevented Evelynn from pursuing any further hunting. Quietly, she listened to the little welcome and speech, nodding her head along to the tid bit about lemon juice and heat. It was something she'd known about for a while, a trick that her mother had employed during one of their table-top campaigns. The riddles that came afterwards, though, those were interesting. As another girl moved to approach Walker almost right away, and the request had been stated to approach only one at a time, Evelynn didn't immediately move forward. Instead, she allowed herself to take a quick read through the paper that had been laid upon the desktop, copy the riddles into a small notebook, and then lean up against a wall to give herself some time to think them through.

"A sponge for the first one," would be the answer to the first part of the first riddle. Once the first girl had cleared away, Evelynn had approached for her own turn. "I'm not quite sure about the second one, though. When does today come before yesterday? I suppose perhaps if you're looking at a calendar? Calendars run from Sunday through to Saturday. So if today is Sunday, and yesterday was Saturday, then Sunday would come before Saturday on the calendar?" She didn't think that was the answer, but she hadn't been able to come up with an alternative answer. "The third, though," she continued without dwelling on her uncertainty, "is surely a hole. And yes, definitely a coin for the last."

"As for the second riddle.." This one had given her more than a little trouble simply in how convoluted it was written. "Really, I'm not quite certain. I thought perhaps it was talking about the letters. 'The first of the second and of the third' could perhaps be meaning the 't' of 'the second' and 'the third'. Or the 't' of 'the second', but the 'o' of 'of the third'. Or perhaps just the 's' of 'second' and 't' of 'third'. But then no matter what pattern you use to follow through with the rest of it, none of it makes any sense...

"Unless..." The idea that perhaps it was referring to the answers of the first four mini-riddles suddenly occurred to her. The first of the second, and of the third... Well, she didn't know the answer to the second one. 'Calendar' had been her guess, so perhaps 'C'. The third was 'Hole', so 'H' there. Of the first, the last. 'E' was the last letter of 'Sponge'. And 'I' was the third letter of the last answer, 'Coin'. Together...'CHEI'. Or perhaps '_HEI'. Either way, that didn't make sense either. "Hrm..." Lips pursed in disappointment. "Perhaps not."

WAIT. LETTERS.

When does today come before yesterday? 'T' comes before 'Y' in the, "Dictionary!" Evelynn blurted, having that 'Aha!' moment. Lips pulled into a smile as the gears suddenly fell into place. "It's not calendar, it's dictionary! Which means... the letters are 'D', 'H', 'E', and 'I', and that... yes, that unscrambles to 'hide'! Hide and seek is a game, which is somewhat like a hunt. Is that the answer?" Gray eyes as bright as a calm overcast sky after a storm peered up expectantly to her upperclassman. All thought of identifying those others in the class who were familiar to her faded in light of the rush of satisfaction that came with the answers. She had to be right. Right?

[font=century gothic]ACTION: Giving her answers to Katrina
ABILITIES: Keen Eye | Fearless[/font]

Intro
Katrina straightened herself in her seat as her members had the new information sink in. In several expressions, Katrina could see their gears turning. Many students peered over at the scroll Katrina had revealed, trying to piece together the clues. Others still seemed like they might be looking for tokens and riddles and candy still. Either way, Katrina could feel the slight strain, everyone was getting a bit tired, less engaged.

Treats
In the midst of her pondering, Sapphire would notice something in the edge of her vision. Attached to the bottom of the very desk she stood by was a golden token. With a simple pry of the taped on prize, Sapphire would receive another golden token.

Evelynn, always noticing so many things. Not unlike previous rounds, Evelynn would notice two things in the midst of her puzzling over the riddle. Squished between the floor and one of the legs of a nearby desk was a token. And as she bent down, she would see a Chocolate Rocher in plastic wrap with a golden sticker attached to the bottom of that desk as well. Two lovely treats.

Names
To Katrina's surprise, the promise of extra treats wasn't of much interest. All a member had to do was approach Katrina and point out as many people they knew the names of and they were promised at least a little something. Unbeknownst to the members, the prize wasn't actually little, it was surprisingly decent.

Sapphire approached Katrina after a moment, head still clearly musing about the riddle. Michael and Evelynn. Katrina nodded with a small smile, "Wonderful, two names which means two tokens," Katrina fished out two of the golden disks from her pocket and opened her palm, allowing Sapphire to see what she held "And also since no one else came up you also knew the most which means you get another," Katrina handed the grand total of three tokens over.

Riddle
Katrina refocused her attention on the few around the riddle as Evelynn started putting the pieces together aloud. Katrina was fascinated and, if one were to look at her, would see her nod slowly as Evelynn put the pieces together. It took Katrina a solid few hours to come up with the riddle and now Evelynn unscrambled it in less than a few minutes.

"…and that... yes, that unscrambles to 'hide'! Hide and seek is a game, which is somewhat like a hunt. Is that the answer?"

As Evelynn turned to Katrina, she would see an impressed smile on her face. "Yes it is, wow, that was fast," Katrina gave a laugh and dug out a handful of tokens from her pocket. She would stand up and hand Evelynn three tokens and Sapphire another one for her contribution with the 'coin' answer.

Raffle, Ask Anything, and Ending Information
Katrina returned to the middle of the crowd of members and tried to make eye contact with as many people she could. "Alrighty so I know you are probably excited to get back to the rest of your evenings, but I want just a little bit more of your time! So, you might have come across these golden tokens. Well, we're going to have a little raffle with them and the winner will get that lovely hand knitted blanket over there on the shelf," Katrina pointed with one arm.

"So if you can get those out and hand them to me I will exchange the same amount of tickets," Katrina grabbed out a small roll of tickets and began exchanging the tokens for a ticket. One ticket went for each token and one with the matching number went in another pocket. Katrina made her way around.

As Katrina finished up trading the tokens for tickets she began talking once more. "Alrighty, so I have several pieces of paper and pens that I will put out on the desk over there. Feel free to write any questions, comments, and ideas on those papers and leave them folded on the desktop. Our next hunts will be in the middle of spring, I'll send out owls regarding that as we get closer to those dates. And with that, I will draw out the winning ticket,"

"The winning ticket is 283491!" (winner is Evelynn) Katrina would smile and say, "Whoever had ticket number 283491, be sure to stop by me on your way out to redeem your prize!"

Conclusion
Katrina would return to the stool in the corner but not hop up just yet, "Alright everyone, thank you for attending the Scavenger Hunt Club Winter Meet. There will be no further dismissal. If you need to run, feel free otherwise feel free to hang around, socialize, snack, or look for more treats. Have a wonderful evening everyone!" What a wonderful event.

OOC Must Read to Post

Reducio

Note
Thank you everyone for attending the Winter Meet! It was a blast to get back to modding and it was a real adventure this time. Just as this event comes to a close we have our Purple Themed Hunt and Easter Hunt on their way, keep your eyes on your Rememberalls for more information.

A reminder, all members do need to exit the event to get the prizes and treats you earned OOC. Otherwise, I'll continue modding every once and a while if there are still people interested in finding more treats or if you just want to socialize afterward.

If you have any further questions please send me an owl or dm. I really hope you enjoyed the event as much as I did. See you all in the upcoming hunts!
@Paige Chase @Lucia Fox @Ophelia Drexton @Aspen Summers @Michael Miller @Sapphire Riddle @Evelynn Decipio @Thora Larkston

[font=century gothic]

OPEN TO INTERACTION

[/font]

[font=century gothic]INTERACTING WITH @Katrina Walker[/font]

[font=century gothic]MENTIONING n/a[/font]

The hint of a coyly prideful grin curled the corners of Evelynn's lips. Wow, that was fast. It wasn't everyday that Evelynn received any sort of affirmatory acknowledgement from any of her seniors. The stroke to her ego was unexpected, and the rush that came with it was one she wasn't sure how to handle. "It was a clever riddle," she offered back, perhaps a touch delayed, the words petering faltering slightly towards the end of the sentiment.

The urge had overcome her to say something positive in return, but what had come out sounded somewhat lame by comparison. Perhaps it might have been better simply to accept the unintentional compliment with in gracious silence. Lifting a hand to tuck a loose strand behind her ear, Evelynn stepped back as Walker made her way to the centre. "Oh?" A raffle sounded interesting. But for what?

As prompted, Evelynn joined the others in exchanging her tokens for tickets. While she had collected a fair few, so too had several others. Her gaze bounced between her own small collection and that of the others in an attempt to gauge just what her chances might have been. Before she could quite work out the odds, however, further instructions were given and the draw put into progress. 2..8..3.. Evelynn glanced among the other members to see who it was that would be stepping forward to claim their winning. When several seconds passed without movement, it prompted her to check her own stock. The numbers called out matched up to one of the tickets clutched between her fingers. "Oh, I suppose that's me, then," came her surprise.

Smiling to herself, pleased that her efforts had paid out with more than just her little stash of chocolate frogs, Evelynn stepped forward, ready to accept the knitted blanket. Ironic, really. It was the same blanket she'd insisted on attempting to search to see if anything had been stashed within.

[font=century gothic]ACTION: Collecting her prize!
ABILITIES: Keen Eye | Fearless[/font]