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    Your Elvenar Team

Absolutely Nothing Unusual or Suspicious Happening Here

Who is the best mastermind with the best plot to execute The Great Heist?


  • Total voters
    19
  • Poll closed .

crackie

Chef, Scroll-Keeper, Buddy's #1 Fan
Despite the fact that my entry for A Contest for Contests lost, I am being peer pressured into beginning the casting process for our uhhh...heist movie because a friend who's recently had to cut back on the game due to health issues requested I stir up some shenanigans around here to bring smiles and laughter while she convalesce. Therefore, The Great Heist is coming to the Artists Corner—we're making another movie! The winning entry for the best heist script will now win a custom signature by yours truly (maybe with some help from Buddy too). Entries must be submitted by Sept 30th EST and winner will be voted on by a poll, with helya's vote worth 5 votes. And...I dunno, if the story line is interesting enough to explore, maybe I'll illustrate a scene too.

custom-sig-by-crackie.png

A sample of my work
-------

It's recently come to my attention that the Community Manager of the U.S. Market has something in her possession called the "magic accomplish button". We are now...uhhh...casting a group of characters for a....ummm...*cough* movie *cough*...where our lovable group of misfits need to steal the magic accomplish button and replace the original in the Community Manager's possession with a fake duplicate. (She can just tell the devs it's broken and get a new one?)

Goal: Steal the magic accomplish button from the Community Manager and replace it with a fake duplicate without getting caught.
Instructions for Participating:
Players must come up with a list of 11 characters (that's a nod to Ocean's 11) to pull off the mission. Each character pitched to be part of the cast for the *cough* movie *cough* must be accompanied by a title and description/justification of their role in the heist. All characters in the Elvenar game and the U.S. market are eligible to be drafted to the cause. However, of the 11 characters recruited, you must reserve 4 for these pre-established roles:
  1. Ring leader - the head of the operation
  2. Hacker - handles all the computer wizardry to get out of technical situations
  3. Counterfeiter - makes the duplicate magic accomplish button
  4. Philologist - someone versed in the study of literature and of disciplines relevant to literature or to language as used in literature (I don't know why you'd need a philologist in a heist, but I need to use that word into as many posts as possible so now you'll have to be extra creative.)
All teams must also contain one Bud Sorceress, although her role can be customized. That means the remaining 6 members of the team are total wildcards where players may pick both the character and assign custom roles. You must include yourself in the story as well into whatever role you find appropriate.

Remember, we're writing fan fiction versions of people and things, like the fan fiction version of Bud Sorceress is best friends with a little girl in the cornfields and likes to light everything on fire. Be creative. Use your imagination. Think outside of the box. Above all else, have fun!
 
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crackie

Chef, Scroll-Keeper, Buddy's #1 Fan
Naturally, I am the ring leader of my version of The Great Heist story. After all, many people have read an inconspicuous reference about a magic accomplish button but only one person knew it needed to be hijacked as the starting point of an adventure. As the resident purveyor of shenanigans, I'm pretty sure I'm being watched so it's unlikely that I'll be allowed anywhere near the thing to nab it myself. The mastermind stays behind the scenes with a rock solid alibi and lets the crew do the heavy lifting.

The heist crew always needs a large hideout to headquarter their plotting and scheming. For that reason, I've recruited Boblin. He scoured an entire continent and founded an underground package distribution network so if you need a place to hide, he's your goto skillful goblin friend. As someone with a literal underground network, he'd also be an expert smuggler and we need to move a secret product in and out. I've also roped his friend Uli, the curious young owl. Uli not only works the at the Post Office so can easily move packages around, but more importantly, he seems to be fine working second jobs for free. That keeps the cost of operations down, although Uli better not lead her trainer Uluma straight to our hideout like she did with the underground package distribution network!

Speaking of free labor, I've also drafted @ed1960 to be a volunteer, not because he's really volunteering, mind you, but we need someone inside Ticket Central to recon and tell us where helya keeps the magic accomplish button and send back pics so we know how to replicate a counterfeit version. I see counterfeiting the magic accomplish button as an engineer problem so I'm drafting Witty Raccoon for the job. However, we can't just replace a magical item with a dud so the replica has to have some sort of magical elements as well. Enter stage left: the Apprentices and Graduates of Sorcerers & Dragons Campus. No doubt, we'll only get the dropouts for this task because that valedictorian on campus might have all the top notch skills, but will just as likely to turn us in to the authorities. We don't need top notch anything here, just a wayward spell to create chaos. They will cast a new spell on the replica that will trigger a force field if helya touches it, complete with mysterious rune etchings and cryptic ornate phrases that says...I'm not a big enough Tolkien fan to make this part up myself. Basically, the spell needs to perform another magical function for helya to think it's broken. Once the counterfeit magic accomplish button is ready, Buddy, who has a key card to Inno offices as an employee, is going to make the old switcheroo and dump the original into the mail for Uli and Boblin to retrieve.

As with the case of the apprentices and graduates, I need a hacker with the technical prowess, but one also open to shenanigans. The litmus test for the ideal candidate here is someone most likely to register their car plates as NULL as a joke and break the DMV in the process and I think that person is @Zoof because he posted a link with the funniest take on programming I've read. To laugh at programming jokes, you have to first understand what they're talking about.

Next, we'll have to pay off the Gourmet Guild to hold a meeting at the day of the heist since the Queen of Snacks will no doubt be a member and we need to keep her preoccupied. As a chef, I will also attend the Gourmet Guild meeting to make sure I am seen in public and away from the scene of the crime to solidify my alibi. I'll also be within helya's eyesight to give her false assurances that I am perfectly well behaved as an outstanding chef member of the Gourmet Guild. While helya is gone, Zoof will grant @Hueanthar root access to the forums and the game so Hueanthar will then open up multiple Black Abysses everywhere, turning all posts into unreadable black boxes! It's the pandemonium we need to keep all support staff and forum mods preoccupied! Alarm bells will likely be sounded and helya will be called back from the Gourmet Guild meeting. Suspecting shenanigans to be in full swing, she will likely go check up on her magic accomplish button and trigger the wayward force field. While helya wears many hats and can do many things, the study of literature and of disciplines relevant to literature or to language as used in literature is not likely in her wheelhouse so she would need to consult...A PHILOLOGIST! <dun dun dunnnnn...> But the only philologist in town is Maidenfair and she will be on our team! Maidenfair is going to keep helya VERY busy down the wrong rabbit hole of obscure words and weird archaic language usage, while amply supplied with snacks of course. Unlike me, Maidenfair is probably not on any watch lists and not a suspect so no one will be the wiser! You can only have a "suspicious philologist" if she's recruited into other people's stories to fulfill a random philologist requirement, which is really her own fault for giving the purveyor of shenanigans challenges to do on the forum.

Cast & Crew
1. Ring leader - crackie
2. Hacker - @Zoof
3. Counterfeiter - Witty Raccoon
4. Philologist - @MaidenFair
5. Insider & Best Friend - Bud Sorceress
6. Host of Hideout - Boblin
7. Post Office Insider - Uli
8. Conjurer of Black Abyss - @Hueanthar
9. Volunteer/Recon - @ed1960
10. Distraction - Gourmet Guild
11. Spell casters - Apprentices and Graduates of Sorcerers & Dragons Campus
 
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The Fairy

Scroll-Keeper, Buddy Fan Club Member
My Perfect Plan

The first part of my plan is to bake the most delicious cake that has ever been made. I have found an ancient fairy recipe that is written in an ancient fairy language - so ancient that even I have trouble reading it, so I will need the most skilled philologist that I can find to help translate it. I will also need a real master chef to bake the cake. I am sure @MaidenFair will be the perfect philologist and that @Darielle will be the perfect master chef, and I hope they will both be really curious to study and bake this cake so I can persuade them to help me. (And they are not doing anything wrong, they are just baking a cake - not that anyone is doing anything wrong of course, it is just for a movie...).

I am able to decipher part of the title of the recipe: something with mana and chocolate. And the addition of mana is brilliant since the decaying nature of mana means it is possible to eat the cake without gaining in weight! But mana is hard to get by:( But fortunately I am able to use my good connections with the Fairy Queen, so she has promised to give me some of the mana that the fairies use in their Tea Houses to make their Purple Tea!

My next part is harder. I will need a spy to give me information about the exact look of the magic accomplish button so I can get a duplicate made. The person who knows best how this button looks is @helya, so by offering her the cake I will try to convince @helya to act as a spy. This will be hard though, so I will need a buddy to help me with this, and who is better at this than the Bud Sorceress? She can even help me lower @helya's defence against my proposal if needed.

Knowing how the magic accomplish button looks the next step in my plan is to make the duplicate magic accomplish button. The best craftmen I know are the dwarves, and I have convinced the Dwarven King to make the button for me. He actually insisted on doing so when he heard the Fairy Queen was providing mana as he didn't want her to get all the glory;)

Now I need to find the people who can help me replace the magic accomplish button. I figured that an invisible "person" would be perfect for this, so I have hired a spire ghost to do the replacement. I took quite some convincing to convince the ghost to help me, but finally the top boss agreed to help me after being offered 5 spectral stones. I will also need a hacker to help the spire ghost getting into @helya's room. I have picked @muffy. as hacker, I am sure she will find it fun deactivating the security system with her jager bombs!

@helya will need a perfect cover though when we replace the magic accomplish button, so I have hired @crackie to make shenanigans to claim @helya's attention while the replacing takes place. To help with her shenanigans @crackie has bought her fire phoenix... I am not sure what @crackie and her fire phoenix are planning to do, but I am sure they will be able to attract @helya's attention for quite a while...

My Perfect Team

Philologist: @MaidenFair. Her about page confirms she is a philologist - and if you are not convinced then check some of her forum posts. Furthermore she is also a specialist in the recipe area as she won the chef contest, so she knows the domain for the words she needs to translate.

Master Chef: @Darielle, she won a price for this fire phoenix cake, and being an editor should ensure that there isn't any misunderstandings between her and the philologist.

Mana Provider: The Fairy Queen. She gave me some of the mana that the fairies use to make Purple Tea in their Tea Houses.

Spy: @helya. As it is her button she knows best how it looks.

Fellow Recruiter: The Bud Sorceress. She can help lower @helya's defence against my proposal if needed.

Counterfeiter: The Dwarven King will make the duplicate magic accomplish button as he is the best craftman in all of Elvenar.

Magic accomplish button replacer: The top spire boss. Being a ghost and thereby invisible makes this a perfect fit.

Hacker: @muffy. I am sure she is the perfect hacker and able to deactivate the security system with her jager bombs and she can reach all security cameras while she is swinging in the chandeliers. See this thread for more information about all @muffy.'s abilities. And best of all - no one will suspect a pink party dinosaour;)

Shenanigan Maker: @crackie. I don't think I need to convince anyone that @crackie is the queen of shenanigans?

Shenanigan Helper: @crackie's Fire Phoenix.

Ring leader: I have chosen... myself. I have come up with this brilliant plan for stealing borrowing @helya's magic accomplish button all by myself (um... almost... @crackie may have inspired me, by e.g. requiring that I have both Buddy and a philologist on my team), so I am sure I am the right choice for ring leader. And with @helya on my team I am sure nothing can go wrong so we won't get caught:)
 
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crackie

Chef, Scroll-Keeper, Buddy's #1 Fan
Spy: @helya. As it is her button she knows best how it looks.
OOoooOOoooOooo...that’s like having the teacher’s manual with all the answers! You've turned it into an inside job...brilliant plot twist! Why didn’t I think of this? Oh right, that’s why we’re having a contest to skim the best crowdsourced ideas.

Mana Provider: The Fairy Queen. She gave me some of the mana that the fairies use to make Purple Tea in their Tea Houses.
Maybe helya should take note and find a less violent way to source her purple ice cream...

I have picked @muffy. as hacker
:eek:
You don’t need me for shenanigans with @muffy. as the resident hacker. That’s enough chaos to keep everyone busy! She can break enough things on her own before a jager bomb even touches her lips! :D
 

crackie

Chef, Scroll-Keeper, Buddy's #1 Fan
I do need you to attract the attention of everyone or someone will realize what @muffy. is doing;)
Impossible! I don't think @muffy. knows what muffy is doing as a hacker, which means nobody will be able to figure out what she is trying to do either. It's like built-in, high level organic encoding that can't be deciphered...super secure!
The first part of my plan is to bake the most delicious cake that has ever been made. I have found an ancient fairy recipe that is written in an ancient fairy language - so ancient that even I have trouble reading it, so I will need the most skilled philologist that I can find to help translate it. I will also need a real master chef to bake the cake. I am sure @MaidenFair will be the perfect philologist and that @Darielle will be the perfect master chef, and I hope they will both be really curious to study and bake this cake so I can persuade them to help me.
I think I've found the Grimoire that you, @Darielle, and @MaidenFair are baking from. That cake looks familiar...
Fairy-Elfin-Cake.png
 

Darielle

Chef, Scroll-Keeper, and Buddy Fan Club Member
My Perfect Plan

The first part of my plan is to bake the most delicious cake that has ever been made. I have found an ancient fairy recipe that is written in an ancient fairy language - so ancient that even I have trouble reading it, so I will need the most skilled philologist that I can find to help translate it. I will also need a real master chef to bake the cake. I am sure @MaidenFair will be the perfect philologist and that @Darielle will be the perfect master chef, and I hope they will both be really curious to study and bake this cake so I can persuade them to help me. (And they are not doing anything wrong, they are just baking a cake - not that anyone is doing anything wrong of course, it is just for a movie...).

I am able to decipher part of the title of the recipe: something with mana and chocolate. And the addition of mana is brilliant since the decaying nature of mana means it is possible to eat the cake without gaining in weight! But mana is hard to get by:( But fortunately I am able to use my good connections with the Fairy Queen, so she has promised to give me some of the mana that the fairies use in their Tea Houses to make their Purple Tea!

My next part is harder. I will need a spy to give me information about the exact look of the magic accomplish button so I can get a duplicate made. The person who knows best how this button looks is @helya, so by offering her the cake I will try to convince @helya to act as a spy. This will be hard though, so I will need a buddy to help me with this, and who is better at this than the Bud Sorceress? She can even help me lower @helya's defence against my proposal if needed.

Knowing how the magic accomplish button looks the next step in my plan is to make the duplicate magic accomplish button. The best craftmen I know are the dwarves, and I have convinced the Dwarven King to make the button for me. He actually insisted on doing so when he heard the Fairy Queen was providing mana as he didn't want her to get all the glory;)

Now I need to find the people who can help me replace the magic accomplish button. I figured that an invisible "person" would be perfect for this, so I have hired a spire ghost to do the replacement. I took quite some convincing to convince the ghost to help me, but finally the top boss agreed to help me after being offered 5 spectral stones. I will also need a hacker to help the spire ghost getting into @helya's room. I have picked @muffy. as hacker, I am sure she will find it fun deactivating the security system with her jager bombs!

@helya will need a perfect cover though when we replace the magic accomplish button, so I have hired @crackie to make shenanigans to claim @helya's attention while the replacing takes place. To help with her shenanigans @crackie has bought her fire phoenix... I am not sure what @crackie and her fire phoenix are planning to do, but I am sure they will be able to attract @helya's attention for quite a while...

My Perfect Team

Philologist: @MaidenFair. Her about page confirms she is a philologist - and if you are not convinced then check some of her forum posts. Furthermore she is also a specialist in the recipe area as she won the chef contest, so she knows the domain for the words she needs to translate.

Master Chef: @Darielle, she won a price for this fire phoenix cake, and being an editor should ensure that there isn't any misunderstandings between her and the philologist.

Mana Provider: The Fairy Queen. She gave me some of the mana that the fairies use to make Purple Tea in their Tea Houses.

Spy: @helya. As it is her button she knows best how it looks.

Fellow Recruiter: The Bud Sorceress. She can help lower @helya's defence against my proposal if needed.

Counterfeiter: The Dwarven King will make the duplicate magic accomplish button as he is the best craftman in all of Elvenar.

Magic accomplish button replacer: The top spire boss. Being a ghost and thereby invisible makes this a perfect fit.

Hacker: @muffy. I am sure she is the perfect hacker and able to deactivate the security system with her jager bombs and she can reach all security cameras while she is swinging in the chandeliers. See this thread for more information about all @muffy.'s abilities. And best of all - no one will suspect a pink party dinosaour;)

Shenanigan Maker: @crackie. I don't think I need to convince anyone that @crackie is the queen of shenanigans?

Shenanigan Helper: @crackie's Fire Phoenix.

Ring leader: I have chosen... myself. I have come up with this brilliant plan for stealing borrowing @helya's magic accomplish button all by myself (um... almost... @crackie may have inspired me, by e.g. requiring that I have both Buddy and a philologist on my team), so I am sure I am the right choice for ring leader. And with @helya on my team I am sure nothing can go wrong so we won't get caught:)
I'd be honored! :)
 

MaidenFair

Chef - Head Philologist
This thread has caused me much merriment. Thumbs up for running your own contest, @crackie! (I hope your friend feels better soon.) These are not the doors I expected a philological interest to open for me in life but these plans sound like amazing fun, so I'm game. :D

I think my language skills are much better than my heist-planning skills but I'll do my best to come up with a plot to throw into the mix. *puts on thinking cap*
 

crackie

Chef, Scroll-Keeper, Buddy's #1 Fan
These are not the doors I expected a philological interest to open for me in life but these plans sound like amazing fun, so I'm game. :D
Our last movie explored a pink partying dragonsaurus rex with a penchant for swinging on chandeliers and her ability to hold her liquor (or not). In this movie, we will be exploring someone versed in the study of literature and of disciplines relevant to literature or to language as used in literature (I'll eventually remember what it means without looking it up if I repeat it enough times). What I like about this new game is you and @muffy. could not be more different, but you and everyone else get to be yourselves and it's up to the rest of us to figure out how to apply everyone's unique personalities to solve a problem. You really have to pay attention to what people post as well as the odd story lines Elvenar provides to complete the mission!

P.S. Dig a deep enough literary rabbit hole and vocabulary labyrinth to keep helya there until both of your hairs are grey. She won't notice the passage of time as long as you keep her fed with delicious snacks, I think. Start with Floccinaucinihilipilification because you're about to turn it into an endurance sport.

I hope this thread is still going on after the 22nd.
Deadline is Sept 30th. You'll have a whole week after your liberation to write and writing is in your wheelhouse!

@crackie, we'll probably need a couple of these, too...
No, we don’t. There’s Absolutely Nothing Unusual or Suspicious Happening Here! It says so right there in the title.

I think that secret ancient Fairy language cake recipe that @The Fairy found is actually the process to make authentic Get Out of Jail Free Cards, but they haven't figured it out yet because she's too caught up in @MaidenFair's web of words and that whole reading thing, whereas I'm just going by the picture, which I'm told is worth 1000 words, but takes less time to digest, so that means it's probably also easier on the hips. So are they unknowingly making helya a Get Out of Jail Free Card? Plot thickens, like icing on cake!
 
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crackie

Chef, Scroll-Keeper, Buddy's #1 Fan
I hate to do this, but Uli's currently a liability in my plot because Uli's old trainer Uluma likes to go ScoobyDooing around places she shouldn't be so I have to plug a major weakness in my story line. I've sent Uli a strongly worded postcard as a reminder not to be followed when flying about from the post office to the secret hideout.
snitches.jpg

(I'll just keep illustrating me and @The Fairy's stories until we get more entries. :D )
 

Darielle

Chef, Scroll-Keeper, and Buddy Fan Club Member
Our last movie explored a pink partying dragonsaurus rex with a penchant for swinging on chandeliers and her ability to hold her liquor (or not). In this movie, we will be exploring someone versed in the study of literature and of disciplines relevant to literature or to language as used in literature (I'll eventually remember what it means without looking it up if I repeat it enough times). What I like about this new game is you and @muffy. could not be more different, but you and everyone else get to be yourselves and it's up to the rest of us to figure out how to apply everyone's unique personalities to solve a problem. You really have to pay attention to what people post as well as the odd story lines Elvenar provides to complete the mission!

P.S. Dig a deep enough literary rabbit hole and vocabulary labyrinth to keep helya there until both of your hairs are grey. She won't notice the passage of time as long as you keep her fed with delicious snacks, I think. Start with Floccinaucinihilipilification because you're about to turn it into an endurance sport.


Deadline is Sept 30th. You'll have a whole week after your liberation to write and writing is in your wheelhouse!


No, we don’t. There’s Absolutely Nothing Unusual or Suspicious Happening Here! It says so right there in the title.

I think that secret ancient Fairy language cake recipe that @The Fairy found is actually the process to make authentic Get Out of Jail Free Cards, but they haven't figured it out yet because she's too caught up in @MaidenFair's web of words and that whole reading thing, whereas I'm just going by the picture, which I'm told is worth 1000 words, but takes less time to digest, so that means it's probably also easier on the hips. So are they unknowingly making helya a Get Out of Jail Free Card? Plot thickens, like icing on cake!
I'll be here before then. Thx.
 

crackie

Chef, Scroll-Keeper, Buddy's #1 Fan
I think you have found the right book, but not the right recipe.... I am sure the title of the recipe said something about chocolate and mana...
You are right. And you said it was a Fairy recipe. Looks like the Get Out of Jail Free Cake is an Elfin recipe.
I think I will need those too!!!
Besides the fact that there is Absolutely Nothing Unusual or Suspicious Happening Here, you were also smart enough to turn your heist into an inside job, so I don't think you need them either.

And now we illustrate the following passages from @The Fairy's plot:

"I will also need a hacker to help the spire ghost getting into @helya's room. I have picked @muffy. as hacker, I am sure she will find it fun deactivating the security system with her jager bombs!"

...and...

"@helya will need a perfect cover though when we replace the magic accomplish button, so I have hired @crackie to make shenanigans to claim @helya's attention while the replacing takes place. To help with her shenanigans @crackie has bought her fire phoenix... I am not sure what @crackie and her fire phoenix are planning to do, but I am sure they will be able to attract @helya's attention for quite a while..."


muffy-hacking-security-cam.jpg

Well, there is nothing @muffy. can't solve by pouring some Jagermeister on it. I've also ordered my Fire Phoenix to set fire (heh, fire...yeah, fire...) to something that would escalate chaos and shenanigans the fastest, because I'm all about efficiency. Hmmmm...it seems like the security cameras are already watching a lot of people from this thread. @MaidenFair is noticeably absent because nobody suspects a philologist to be up to no good. There's also a lot of things burning and on fire, but I'm sure everything is fine. I wonder if @helya regrets signing off on fire around here.
 
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