Fragment Seven: Furomaris
Overview
Fragment Seven led the Mountaineers in a search through several famous works of literature. Sullivan’s third journal began to display an intricate triptych of pages in which he describes his feelings about life and the lengths to which he went to protect his young daughter, Deirdre. Mixed in with this outpouring of his thoughts and fears were mysterious clues and a request to follow him to ‘the first location.’ There were words crossed out, only to be repeated and underlined. No logic to his edits was readily apparent, but one clue was solved quickly. A single word in red, ‘Study,’ led The Mountaineers to look into the very first Sherlock Holmes novel, a Study in Scarlet.
Using the clues and the novel as references, the recruits were able to identify keywords within the text that Sullivan clearly had meant for them to find. It took some time to figure out what to do with this information, until a lucky post from Lauren, in which she talked about the readiness of The Cagliostro’s final performance. The post also contained a floor plan for the performance, which included a UTM location code. When recruits took the word count of the Sherlock Holmes novel, they discovered and used them in this format, the first clue led the recruits to Gansu, China.
More text started coming rapidly from Sullivan, providing more clues. As he talked about how he longed for his daughter to one day see the truth, even while he sought to hide it from her, he left the recruits more stepping stones along their path. The Call of the Wild led the recruits to Brierley, England. The Red Badge of Courage found them in Mor, Hungary, and Love and Friendship by Jane Austen sent them to Lye, France.
While recruits pondered what to do with this information, one of their members realized that these locations were not stops on an itinerary, but segments of a whole. Mor, Gansu, Lye, Brierly: these locations were hints leading to the Morgan Library. Clearly, that was the location in which Sullivan had hidden the spell he used to hide Deirdre from the world, and the means to free her.
Lauren had not been idle during this time. She was desperate for some means to protect her mentor, the Cagliostro, from the imminent end of his life at the hands of the elite for whom he was performing. Because of this, she also sought the means to shield someone from magic, as Sullivan had done for Deirdre. Seeking the spell for her own reasons, she quickly came to the conclusion that it rested at the Morgan Library, as had the Mountaineers before her.
On a cold Tuesday morning, both Lauren and Cole Sumner arrived at the Morgan Library to check out the Ackerly Green book. Recruits discovered that Seven Cradle Songs was the book they sought. Cole, with the recruits’ help, and Lauren, aided by magiq and her mentor (from afar), came upon the book at nearly the same time. When Cole valiantly broke the book out of its locked cage, Lauren used her magic to steal the book and create a diversion by setting the library on fire while she made her getaway.
Seemingly defeated, the Mountaineers worried about Cole, but not only had he come through unscathed, but he had also managed to find a handwritten note from Sullivan to Deirdre in the book. He was, fortunately, able to carry the note out with him. Within lay Sullivan’s instructions for how to break Deirdre’s spell, along with the seventh fragment, the word Furomaris.