The Riddle of the Fractal Monks - Revision history

Jonathan at 09:52, 19 July 2022

2022-07-19T09:52:35Z

Jonathan at 11:23, 17 June 2022

2022-06-17T11:23:34Z

Jonathan: /* Summary of Plot */

2022-06-15T20:28:49Z

Summary of Plot

Jonathan at 19:59, 10 June 2022

2022-06-10T19:59:14Z

Jonathan: /* Summary of Plot */

2022-06-10T14:57:18Z

Summary of Plot

Jonathan: /* Summary of Plot */

2022-06-10T13:43:52Z

Summary of Plot

Jonathan: /* Summary of Plot */

2022-06-10T12:07:17Z

Summary of Plot

Jonathan: /* Summary of Plot */

2022-06-09T20:08:09Z

Summary of Plot

Jonathan: /* Summary of Plot */

2022-06-09T20:07:43Z

Summary of Plot

Jonathan: /* Summary of Plot */

2022-06-09T20:01:17Z

Summary of Plot

@@ Line 64: / Line 64: @@
 Matheson forces them to hand over the thesis and goes off to find Isaac. Margot and Benjamin escape in the basket lift and Dorothy and Tom chase after Matheson's bunch. They find one of her men corned by a couple of angry pigs and retrieve the book from him and head back to the lift. Halfway down, they are menaced by a helicopter, which they stave off by throwing the thesis at it. The thesis gets shredded in the blades and the helicopter crashes to its destruction.
-Back at Patrice's, they own up to the loss of her thesis, but Patrice is unexpectedly relieved, now that the final copy, which she had kept for herself against all the rules, has been destroyed. Tying up loose ends, Dorothy wonders if it wasn't Bancroft who stole Tom's notebook after all, but one of the monks, alerted to Tom's presence by another shadowy figure from Tom's past, such as [[The Hon Sholto Chelford-Bickerton]], whose name just happens to start with S. Did he survive the sinking of Channellia? However, this speculation is brought to a halt by the discovery of a note from Katya, indicating that her uncle [[Arkady Morozov|Arkady]] wants her to call him. What on earth can he want?
+Back at Patrice's, they own up to the loss of her thesis, but Patrice is unexpectedly relieved, now that the final copy, which she had kept for herself against all the rules, has been destroyed. Tying up loose ends, Dorothy wonders if it wasn't Bancroft who stole Tom's notebook after all, but one of the monks, alerted to Tom's presence by another shadowy figure from Tom's past, such as [[The Honourable Sholto Chelford-Bickerton]], whose name just happens to start with S. Did he survive the sinking of Channellia? However, this speculation is brought to a halt by the discovery of a note from Katya, indicating that her uncle [[Arkady Morozov|Arkady]] wants her to call him. What on earth can he want?
 }}

@@ Line 64: / Line 64: @@
 Matheson forces them to hand over the thesis and goes off to find Isaac. Margot and Benjamin escape in the basket lift and Dorothy and Tom chase after Matheson's bunch. They find one of her men corned by a couple of angry pigs and retrieve the book from him and head back to the lift. Halfway down, they are menaced by a helicopter, which they stave off by throwing the thesis at it. The thesis gets shredded in the blades and the helicopter crashes to its destruction.
-Back at Patrice's, they own up to the loss of her thesis, but Patrice is unexpectedly relieved, now that the final copy, which she had kept for herself against all the rules, has been destroyed. Tying up loose ends, Dorothy wonders if it wasn't Bancroft who stole Tom's notebook after all, but one of the monks, alerted to Tom's presence by another shadowy figure from Tom's past, such as [[The Hon Sholto Chelford-Bickerton]], whose name just happens to start with S. Did he survive the sinking of [[The Autonomous Bailiwick of Channellia|Channellia]]? However, this speculation is brought to a halt by the discovery of a note from Katya, indicating that her uncle [[Arkady Morozov|Arkady]] wants her to call him. What on earth can he want?
+Back at Patrice's, they own up to the loss of her thesis, but Patrice is unexpectedly relieved, now that the final copy, which she had kept for herself against all the rules, has been destroyed. Tying up loose ends, Dorothy wonders if it wasn't Bancroft who stole Tom's notebook after all, but one of the monks, alerted to Tom's presence by another shadowy figure from Tom's past, such as [[The Hon Sholto Chelford-Bickerton]], whose name just happens to start with S. Did he survive the sinking of Channellia? However, this speculation is brought to a halt by the discovery of a note from Katya, indicating that her uncle [[Arkady Morozov|Arkady]] wants her to call him. What on earth can he want?
 }}

@@ Line 30: / Line 30: @@
 {{#spoiler:show=Spoiler for THE RIDDLE OF THE FRACTAL MONKS|[[Dorothy Chan|Dorothy]] and [[Tom Winscombe|Tom]] are on a date to [https://www.bbc.co.uk/proms The Proms]. However, the performance of works by [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hildegard_of_Bingen Saint Hildegard of Bingen] is interrupted when a mysterious monk tumbles to his death from the gallery.
-At the office the next day, Dorothy and Tom are introduced to the new interns, [[Katya Morozova|Katya]] and [[Balvinder Singh|Balvinder]]. Dorothy reveals that she has seen a post on the [[The ePis|ePi forum]] to the effect that 'the monks were coming to claim what was rightfully theirs.' The user who posted this was called ''SaintHildegard'', who has since deactivated their account. Dorothy senses something in the air, but can't yet work out quite what, but wonders if it has something to do with the [[Vavasor papers]], which apparently [[Isaac Vavasor]] and [[Kevin Wilbraham]] have both been spotted chasing after in various parts of the world.
+At the office the next day, Dorothy and Tom are introduced to the new interns, [[Katya Morozova|Katya]] and [[Balvinder Singh|Balvinder]]. Dorothy reveals that she has seen a post on the [[The ePis|ePi forum]] to the effect that 'the monks were coming to claim what was rightfully theirs.' The user who posted this was called ''SaintHildegard'', who has since deactivated their account. Dorothy senses something in the air, but can't yet work out quite what, but wonders if it has something to do with the [[Vavasor papers]], which apparently [[Isaac Vavasor]] and [[Kevin Wilberts]] have both been spotted chasing after in various parts of the world.
 Dorothy suggests that the only person who can help them figure out what's going on is [[Margot Evercreech]], the only person ever to have interviewed Isaac. So Dorothy and Tom go to visit her, where they are greeted by a shotgun-waving Margot and her alpacas, [[Dolores]] and [[Steven]]. They also find [[Benjamin Unsworth]], who is now working for Margot as her archivist, having been fired by [[Helen Matheson]]. It turns out that Isaac was something of an expert on Hildegard of Bingen (and in fact wrote the programme notes for the prom concert that Dorothy and Tom had attended, under the assumed name Ivy Griffin) and that there was also something about monks in an archive of his that Margot previously acquired. However, this archive has gone missing, on a laptop that Margot was also messing around with cryptocurrencies on, including [[Tulpencoin Inc|Tulpencoins]]. Dorothy puts two and two together and deduces that Margot's laptop has been stolen and taken to [[Channellia]], where it sank along with the rest of the rig. She persuades Tom that he should retrieve it.

@@ Line 64: / Line 64: @@
 Matheson forces them to hand over the thesis and goes off to find Isaac. Margot and Benjamin escape in the basket lift and Dorothy and Tom chase after Matheson's bunch. They find one of her men corned by a couple of angry pigs and retrieve the book from him and head back to the lift. Halfway down, they are menaced by a helicopter, which they stave off by throwing the thesis at it. The thesis gets shredded in the blades and the helicopter crashes to its destruction.
-Back at Patrice's, they own up to the loss of her thesis, but Patrice is unexpectedly relieved, now that the final copy, which she had kept for herself against all the rules, has been destroyed. Tying up loose ends, Dorothy wonders if it wasn't Bancroft who stole Tom's notebook after all, but one of the monks, alerted to Tom's presence by another shadowy figure from Tom's past, such as [[The Hon Sholto Chelford-Bickerton]], whose name just happens to start with S. However, this speculation is brought to a halt by the discovery of a note from Katya, indicating that her uncle [[Arkady Morozov|Arkady]] wants her to call him. What on earth can he want?
+Back at Patrice's, they own up to the loss of her thesis, but Patrice is unexpectedly relieved, now that the final copy, which she had kept for herself against all the rules, has been destroyed. Tying up loose ends, Dorothy wonders if it wasn't Bancroft who stole Tom's notebook after all, but one of the monks, alerted to Tom's presence by another shadowy figure from Tom's past, such as [[The Hon Sholto Chelford-Bickerton]], whose name just happens to start with S. Did he survive the sinking of [[The Autonomous Bailiwick of Channellia|Channellia]]? However, this speculation is brought to a halt by the discovery of a note from Katya, indicating that her uncle [[Arkady Morozov|Arkady]] wants her to call him. What on earth can he want?
 }}

@@ Line 64: / Line 64: @@
 Matheson forces them to hand over the thesis and goes off to find Isaac. Margot and Benjamin escape in the basket lift and Dorothy and Tom chase after Matheson's bunch. They find one of her men corned by a couple of angry pigs and retrieve the book from him and head back to the lift. Halfway down, they are menaced by a helicopter, which they stave off by throwing the thesis at it. The thesis gets shredded in the blades and the helicopter crashes to its destruction.
-Back at Patrice's, they own up to the loss of her thesis, but Patrice is unexpectedly relieved, now that the final copy, which she had kept for herself against all the rules, has been destroyed. Tying up loose ends, Dorothy wonders if it wasn't Bancroft who stole Tom's notebook after all, but one of the monks, alerted to Tom's presence by another shadowy figure from Tom's past, such as [[Sholto Chelford-Bickerton]], whose name just happens to start with S. However, this speculation is brought to a halt by the discovery of a note from Katya, indicating that her uncle [[Arkady Morozov|Arkady]] wants her to call him. What on earth can he want?
+Back at Patrice's, they own up to the loss of her thesis, but Patrice is unexpectedly relieved, now that the final copy, which she had kept for herself against all the rules, has been destroyed. Tying up loose ends, Dorothy wonders if it wasn't Bancroft who stole Tom's notebook after all, but one of the monks, alerted to Tom's presence by another shadowy figure from Tom's past, such as [[The Hon Sholto Chelford-Bickerton]], whose name just happens to start with S. However, this speculation is brought to a halt by the discovery of a note from Katya, indicating that her uncle [[Arkady Morozov|Arkady]] wants her to call him. What on earth can he want?
 }}

@@ Line 28: / Line 28: @@
 ==Summary of Plot==
-{{#spoiler:show=Spoiler for THE RIDDLE OF THE FRACTAL MONKS|[[Dorothy Chan|Dorothy]] and [[Tom Winscombe|Tom]] are on a date to [https://www.bbc.co.uk/proms The Proms]. However, the performance of works by [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hildegard_of_Bingen Saint Hildegard of Bingen] is interrupted when a mysterious monk tumbles to his death from the gallery. Dorothy subsequently reveals that she has seen a post on the [[The ePis|ePi forum]] to the effect that 'the monks were coming to claim what was rightfully theirs.' The user who posted this was called ''SaintHildegard'', who has since deactivated their account. Dorothy senses something in the air, but can't yet work out quite what, but wonders if it has something to do with the [[Vavasor papers]], which apparently [[Isaac Vavasor]] and [[Kevin Wilbraham]] have both been spotted chasing after in various parts of the world.
+{{#spoiler:show=Spoiler for THE RIDDLE OF THE FRACTAL MONKS|[[Dorothy Chan|Dorothy]] and [[Tom Winscombe|Tom]] are on a date to [https://www.bbc.co.uk/proms The Proms]. However, the performance of works by [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hildegard_of_Bingen Saint Hildegard of Bingen] is interrupted when a mysterious monk tumbles to his death from the gallery.
 Dorothy suggests that the only person who can help them figure out what's going on is [[Margot Evercreech]], the only person ever to have interviewed Isaac. So Dorothy and Tom go to visit her, where they are greeted by a shotgun-waving Margot and her alpacas, [[Dolores]] and [[Steven]]. They also find [[Benjamin Unsworth]], who is now working for Margot as her archivist, having been fired by [[Helen Matheson]]. It turns out that Isaac was something of an expert on Hildegard of Bingen (and in fact wrote the programme notes for the prom concert that Dorothy and Tom had attended, under the assumed name Ivy Griffin) and that there was also something about monks in an archive of his that Margot previously acquired. However, this archive has gone missing, on a laptop that Margot was also messing around with cryptocurrencies on, including [[Tulpencoin Inc|Tulpencoins]]. Dorothy puts two and two together and deduces that Margot's laptop has been stolen and taken to [[Channellia]], where it sank along with the rest of the rig. She persuades Tom that he should retrieve it.
@@ Line 34: / Line 36: @@
 Tom goes to [https://burnhambookfest.co.uk Burnham-on-Sea], where he encounters the diver [[Sven Svensson|Sven]] who will take him out to the submerged rig, five miles out, the next morning. In the [[Jolly Sailor]] that night, he also comes across the mysterious [[Jasper Bancroft]], who gives him his card. The next morning, Sven takes Tom out to the submerged Channellia and he dives down to fetch Margot's laptop. On his way back to the surface, he is attacked by someone with a harpoon, who he fends off by hurling his weight belt at them. When he breaks surface, he finds that Sven has vanished. Unexpectedly, Bancroft shows up to rescue him, but he in turn is shot by the man with the harpoon. Tom manages to escape back to Burnham and finds that Sven has vanished, apparently gone fishing.
-Tom goes back to London with Margot's laptop and he and Dorothy persuade her business partner [[Ali MacLehose|Ali]] to retrieve the archive from it. This reveals that in the course of Isaac's research into Hildegard of Bingen, a person known only as [[S]] had brokered a meeting with a mysterious monk, who in turn had expressed a desire to meet [[Archimedes and Pythagoras Vavasor|Archie and Pye]], as his order was interested in making use of their mathematical expertise, specifically in the area of fractals. However, the only thing that ultimately came out of this was work that would turn out to be useful in their subsequent relationship with the [[Belarusian mafia]]. S, meanwhile had disappeared off the face of the earth.
+Tom goes back to London with Margot's laptop and he and Dorothy persuade her business partner [[Ali MacLehose|Ali]] to retrieve the archive from it. This reveals that in the course of Isaac's research into Hildegard of Bingen, a person known only as S had brokered a meeting with a mysterious monk, who in turn had expressed a desire to meet [[Archimedes and Pythagoras Vavasor|Archie and Pye]], as his order was interested in making use of their mathematical expertise, specifically in the area of fractals. However, the only thing that ultimately came out of this was work that would turn out to be useful in their subsequent relationship with the [[Belarusian mafia]]. S, meanwhile had disappeared off the face of the earth.
 Having reached a dead end, Tom decides to go back to Burnham-on-Sea to find out why he was abandoned by Sven. On a tip-off, he heads over to the lighthouse where a trail of blood leads to Sven's body, wrapped in a monk's habit, hidden in the rough on Burnham golf course. Having reached yet another dead end, Tom remembers that he has Bancroft's business card, so he rings the number on it. [[Helen Matheson]] answers, but Tom fails to get any useful information out of her. Meanwhile, a helicopter lands and a group of monks leap out of it and retrieve Sven's body. Tom notices a mysterious symbol on the monks' robes.
@@ Line 62: / Line 64: @@
 Matheson forces them to hand over the thesis and goes off to find Isaac. Margot and Benjamin escape in the basket lift and Dorothy and Tom chase after Matheson's bunch. They find one of her men corned by a couple of angry pigs and retrieve the book from him and head back to the lift. Halfway down, they are menaced by a helicopter, which they stave off by throwing the thesis at it. The thesis gets shredded in the blades and the helicopter crashes to its destruction.
-Back at Patrice's, they own up to the loss of her thesis, but Patrice is unexpectedly relieved, now that the final copy, which she had kept for herself against all the rules, has been destroyed.
+Back at Patrice's, they own up to the loss of her thesis, but Patrice is unexpectedly relieved, now that the final copy, which she had kept for herself against all the rules, has been destroyed. Tying up loose ends, Dorothy wonders if it wasn't Bancroft who stole Tom's notebook after all, but one of the monks, alerted to Tom's presence by another shadowy figure from Tom's past, such as [[Sholto Chelford-Bickerton]], whose name just happens to start with S. However, this speculation is brought to a halt by the discovery of a note from Katya, indicating that her uncle [[Arkady Morozov|Arkady]] wants her to call him. What on earth can he want?
 }}

@@ Line 54: / Line 54: @@
 Back at the office, Ali has been behaving strangely and finally owns up that the only copy left of Patti's PhD thesis was stolen in the break-in and that she is distraught about this, but won't say why. She has also thrown Ali out for asking too many questions. Dorothy speculates that the monks came for Margot's laptop but stumbled on Patrice's thesis and took that instead. Apparently he research was in the field of fractals, and the thesis itself was classified for some reason. They resolve to retrieve it before any damage is done.
-Based on the fragments of conversation that they'd picked up from the interview tape, Dorothy deduces that the monks' monastery is somewhere in the area of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meteora Meteora] in Greece. Dorothy and Tom fly out there, taking Tom's and Margot's robes with them as disguises.
+Based on the fragments of conversation that they'd picked up from the interview tape, Dorothy deduces that the monks' monastery is somewhere in the area of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meteora Meteora] in Greece. Dorothy and Tom fly out there, taking Tom's and Margot's robes with them as disguises. They quickly establish that the monks must be based at [[The monastery of St Benoit]] at the top of one of the mountains in the area. They ascend to the top via wicker basket and sneak into the Great Hall, where Matins is about to commence and they watch the monks perform their extraordinary Fractal Dance. In the middle of it all, the Abbott produces an impressive leather-bound book, which they recognise as Patrice's PhD thesis. After the ceremony, they follow the Abbott and his crew to the library, but they are unable to get in and they are hustled away by a couple of monks acting as security.
 (More to come...)
 }}

@@ Line 52: / Line 52: @@
 Having reached another dead end, Dorothy and Tom discuss what they know so far. Tom admits that he told Bancroft about where he was staying in Burnham-on-Sea, and he also reveals that he left his notebook behind. Dorothy deduces that Bancroft must have stolen this on behalf of the monks and that they subsequently killed him to keep him quiet. This was how they found their way to both Margot and Patrice. She adds that the monks probably killed Sven to keep him quiet as well. Dorothy decides that she'd like to take a look at The Priory herself, so they both go to visit it. However, it turns out to be abandoned and booby-trapped. As soon as Dorothy opens the door, the entire place blows up.
-Back to the office, Ali has been behaving strangely and finally owns up that the only copy left of Patti's PhD thesis was stolen in the break-in and that she is distraught about this, but won't say why. She has also thrown Ali out for asking too many questions. Dorothy speculates that the monks came for Margot's laptop but stumbled on Patrice's thesis and took that instead. Apparently he research was in the field of fractals, and the thesis itself was classified for some reason. They resolve to retrieve it before any damage is done.
+Back at the office, Ali has been behaving strangely and finally owns up that the only copy left of Patti's PhD thesis was stolen in the break-in and that she is distraught about this, but won't say why. She has also thrown Ali out for asking too many questions. Dorothy speculates that the monks came for Margot's laptop but stumbled on Patrice's thesis and took that instead. Apparently he research was in the field of fractals, and the thesis itself was classified for some reason. They resolve to retrieve it before any damage is done.
 Based on the fragments of conversation that they'd picked up from the interview tape, Dorothy deduces that the monks' monastery is somewhere in the area of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meteora Meteora] in Greece. Dorothy and Tom fly out there, taking Tom's and Margot's robes with them as disguises.

@@ Line 49: / Line 49: @@
 The cassette turns out to be a recording of a rambling and possibly drunk interview between [[Galton Felmersham]], the first biographer of [[Archie and Pye Vavasor|Archie and Pye]], and Archie and Pye themselves, in which they describe their meeting with the Head of the Order of the Romanesco at their mountain-top monastery. However, before they can find anything useful from the tape, it gets eaten by the cassette player and ends up breaking it.
 (More to come...)
 }}