Earthquake!

An earthquake hits!

fairly small, a few things fall down, but nothing major... and then another small one... but no more.

Derek tries to contact his sister, Mim, to see if she's ok.

Derek contacts Mim through the fire. She's at her house! She's not missing!

Mim says she popped over to Sydney for some new bats for the community Quidditch team.

(the fire cuts out before Derek can respond)

Strange, Derek has never heard of her going to Sydney herself... Also, Mim said she sent an owl this morning, but Derek never received a letter.

Pierre is j-chilling as a rat.

We're going to Lillyland to Mim's house.

Not only does she maintain that she sent Derek a letter, she has a reply, in Derek's handwriting... which he doesn't remember writing!?!

Derek recruits her help (by offering a summer of dishwashing at Mim's Butterbeer!), and we all fly off to the school on a magic carpet.

Derek wants to look around interim Headmaster Rafferty Tomes's office... so Emily offers to cause a distraction while he hides under an invisibility cloak and Mim stays on lookout.

Emily successfully cast Alohamora on the headmaster's door! So cool! (if anyone asks, she was just practicing...). (she had to use a point of luck to cast it, because she didn't "know" it yet... but now she does!)

Derek goes in and looks for anything suspicious. A letter... addressed from the old headmaster to the new headmaster... but it's blank. He uses Finite Incantatum. All it says is, "We're going to try it. Burn the school down if we don't come back."

That freaks us out plenty that we run away.... to dinner! Plum pudding in the shape of plums, fluffy as a literal cloud mashed potatoes, magically delicious steaks with magical salt from Lillyland, and some McDonalds for Pierre, and imported American pizza, still hot.

We take a trip to Killjoy's office. "Strange occurances are bread and butter for a wizard school... you'll have to be more specific." "Disappearance of the board is totally fine, you're perfectly safe."

When asked about the "strange letter," he says "oh, that's probably just normal wizard school pranks." Oglet is suspicious.

He inspects Derek's memory, the note in Derek's handwriting... "it appears... somehow different... there's no magic on it, it hasn't been transformed. But it doesn't quite belong, somehow. I don't know what to tell you..."

Oglet tries to figure out if they're telling the truth, or being evasive. Both! Telling the truth, and evading something. (not evading about what we're asking about... but more general... not about the letter or about the disappearances)

Emily gained knowledge about the books on his shelves. (+2 for any one test that could be helped by knowledge of what books were on his shelves, OR remember that there was a book about that on his shelf we could go get later)

Late at night, Oglet saw some teachers wandering out into the woods. With Derek & Emily's help, she tracked them to a Cabin in the woods, where Derek snuck up to try to see better... he was almost spotted, but successfully snuck down to tell others what happened.

Using the invisibility cloak, and working together, Oglet & Emily look in through the window. Oglet identifies 2 large figures (Brush Kowhai & Rafferty Tomes), and 3 small figures(too big for goblins, not gnomes, not house elves, very bouncy, move very strangely), all gathered in a circle, looking at something at their feet in the cabin. One professor, (big for goblins, gnomes) about 2 feet tall each heavy build but pretty long arms aren't really around here and they're big for them, some sort of person-creature, who are small). at their feet is a hole with a ripply surface (

Doing a vibe-check, Emily can tell the figures are monitoring. Very focused, talking back and forth, nothing is happening, they're waiting/watching. Trying to plan while they figure out what to do.

Derek leads the group to a really nice hiding spot, behind a bush, and watch the group of five leave - three small-people, hopping and skirting along, and then Brush Kowhai, and Rafferty Tomes locks the door behind them.

Derek hears the 3 small figures chattering in a language we don't know. Very bouncy,

Professor Kowhai is worried, deep down, (big-picture, like climate change, not like, acutely).

Rafferty Tomes, on the other hand, is both concerned with right now, but also a little bit eager. A glint in his eye looks just slightly predatory.

Flash Forward: Emily recites a phrase she overheard from the chattering creatures. The tutors say it's just dutch.

On the way back, the intrepid adventurers split up, and Emily gets caught by a prefect and is embarrased! (-2 to magic for a while)