Another piece of the puzzle

Here's the other map piece I found - looks like we need another four to be able to find where the strange 'machine' is. I wonder what it is and what it does?

Any thoughts anyone?

Recap

I've just had the few most hectic weeks starting Uni that I haven't really been able to spend as much time as I'd have liked on this mystery. But after a weekend back home I'm all re-enthused!

So where are we? I found a map piece and letter from one of my ancestors that mentioned a strange machine and an old secret society and also gave a clue to finding a second map piece, which was with some pages from an old diary and a strange set of instructions.

From the diary, it seems that the machine was dangerous in some way and has been hidden somewhere - I have to find all of the pieces of the map to find out where. There is a third piece of the map with a lawyer, but I need to give him a code word before he will hand it over - I think this is where the instructions come in. They look like a kind of treasure hunt through the MMU website. I'm sure I can crack this soon...

I've done some digging

Wow! This is really exciting exciting - I did some investigation based on the diary pages and there's still a firm of solicitors in my home town called Fortescue & Fortescue - seems that it's still run by the descendents of the Fortescue in the diary. Spooky.

But this is the exciting bit - when I spoke to them they still had documents in the name of an Oliver Captor! Apparently this package has been in the firm for years and no one knows what it is but are under strict instructions only to give it to someone who can tell them a specific code word.

The man I spoke to did let slip that the code word is a building name - any ideas?

Viola

I got it!

This is so exciting! I finally managed to crack the code in the letter and find the name of the play I needed - well done all of you who have got this far:o)

I went to the library in my Gran's house and, after much searching - and much dust - found a complete set of Shakespeare's plays, and there was the one I needed (I'm not going to tell you what it is in case anyone still wants to work it out for themselves).

I took down this old book that looked like it hadn't been opened for years - which it probably hadn't - and inside all middles of the pages had been removed to make a kind of box. It's amazing - you'd never find it if you didn't know where to look.

Inside the box there was another piece of the map - hurrah - what looks like some pages torn out of an old diary, and a typewritten set of instructions. I've made some copies of the map piece and left them at various MMU libraries if anyone wants to pick one up? Here's a photo of the diary pages and the instructions - hope someone can make more of them than me?





Viola

Getting there...

I'm really excited that we have now nearly 40 people signed up - I'm loving that you're all helping me :o)

I'm sure that I'm very close to cracking the letter... I know that "this is not a clue" is not a clue (I guess!).

It's got to be something to do with the underlining on the letter - I've found another phrase, but it's not any English I recognise...?

Viola

Back on the case

Well I'm now more or less settled in to Manchester - I have somewhere to stay and can find my way onto the main campus. It's a start anyay...

Can now spend a bit more time trying to work out what's going on here. Things I'm thinking so far:

1. I have one piece of what looks like a larger map. Where is it of? Why was it split into pieces? Can I even get all the other pieces? Where do I start?

2. I have a letter from some long dead relative that talks about a secret society and a machine. What was the society and what did it do? What was the machine and what was it for? Why was the machine hidden? Where is the machine now?

3. The letter says it contains some kind of clue to a play - but I'm lost...

Lots of questions. No answers yet.

Getting help!

It's been a busy week for me getting ready to go to Manchester, so I haven't had too much time to work on the letter.

In order to get people to help me and some of my friends have been putting posters and stickers up around the university. If you see one, please join us!