Copyright © 2010 by Rachel Wright; all rights reserved. Published with permission.

It all started in July, 1980, when seven of us from the academy were invited to New York to meet one of the academy’s biggest benefactors, a rich lady called Miss Flaumel. Our teacher Miss Trees came with us, and we all got on the plane. Dave went and sat in First Class and got away with it, it was so unfair! Anyway, after a bit, Miss Trees got up to go to the ladies, and about half an hour later, we realised she hadn’t come back. This was a bit weird, ‘cos there were still people going in and out of the toilets.

Copyright © 2009 Rachel Wright; all rights reserved. Published with permission.

So, just about a year after we went to Miss Flaumel’s house and all those weird things happened to us, the orphanage took us on a camping trip to the national forest. They usually do them every year, but last year there was a forest fire so it got cancelled. Anyway, I’ve been on one before, so I wasn’t expecting any excitement. These trips are normally really boring, not to mention uncomfortable and dirty and muddy and smelly… although I suppose it is good to get away from the school, and the forest is pretty.

Game Description

Title: The Mystery of Misty Rease
Players: 6
Mode: Tabletop

Life at the Carlos Cory School for Gifted Orphans is not a bed of roses; the academic regimen is punishing and the discipline is worse, but once a year you get to go on vacation. Two years ago you visited Miss Flaumel, and instead of going to socialite balls, you rescued Miss Trees from a sabre-tooth tiger and a sticky end. Last year you went camping in the national forest, and instead of rock-climbing, white-water rafting and so forth, you defeated a dozen demons and saved the world. It makes a change.

This year you are not going camping. All that rock-climbing, and rafting and stuff can be great fun, but it's also cold and dirty and the food is terrible. This year you have a much better plan with more fun, better food and far fewer teachers. Just as soon as the rest of them go off camping and most of the staff clear off, you can put your plan into action. You have to admit though, it would be easier to organise your secret vacation if that new kid did not keep popping up. Everyone knows it is tough going to a new school and making new friends, especially if your parents have just died and stuff, it's easy to try too hard. But does she have to follow you everywhere?

When we moved in, eight years ago, the area behind the wall was all gravelled. When I first decided to build a pond I was constrained by two shrubs at the front, and also by the surprise discovery of a very well engineered concrete path hidden half an inch down. The foundations of the path are half a metre deep. Rather than break it up with a sledgehammer, I decided to make a feature of it. However, with that and the shrubs, I ended up with a pond significantly smaller than I wanted.

Subsequently, one shrub died because I'd got too close to it, and the other got far too big and had to be removed. Then this spring I found that the liner had sprung a leak. I was going to have to replace the liner, and I might as well extend the pond nearer to the size I had initially wanted.