the quest (museum quest part 2)

my promotion at work has NOT been anything close to what i imagined it to be!

mysterious phone calls from my boss, colored lightening, unexplainable earthquakes, and something monstrous lurking in my workplace...

all i have to say is COOL!

i wanted things to pick up, and boy have they ever! i think i could get used to this promotion.

granted i had to flee the museum in an awful hurry. that wasn't much fun. whatever was in the basement sounded pretty formidable, but now that i'm out in the open, and a long way from the museum what are the chances it'll find me? come on really?

i fell back to the botanic gardens to regroup and figure out exactly what ms. rhonwyn wanted me to do.

i'd have just called her, but she insisted just before she hung up on me (without giving me any of the key details about my task), that i wasn't to phone her back under any circumstances.

all i had to go on were the two envelopes ms. rhonwyn had left for me in her office...

a big one contained, what i assumed were, the "most important artifacts in new zealand". i wasn't too impressed thus far with them though. they weighed practically nothing, and were very small and flat (as they fit in a brown envelope!).

the other envelope had instructions and directions for what i'm supposed to do.

standing in the park i had a choice of which of the two i was going to open first... the one that was going to give me a clear idea of what was going on OR the one that held the loot...




like an sane and normal individual i choose the bigger envelope with the treasure! (yeah okay maybe not the best decision in hindsight... but you try being thrust into the middle of a complete unknown situation, and too boot be told you had the countries most valuable relics in your hot little claws!)

i have to say what i discovered in that big envelope was a bigger disappointment than i expected...

three woven baskets... ms. rhonwyn was freaking out over three flax handy crafts... i was beginning to question her curatorial skills (granted to be fair her job description is "specimen and display management", which doesn't claim curatorship)...

had i not been so disappointed by the caliber of these artifacts i might have poked around with them more. why do i point this out? well i didn't know it yet, but had i the world might be a very different place... point is for now just remember i handled them for a few seconds and than disappointedly put them back in the envelope (man was i lucky that's what i did!).

i than took out the instructions expecting them to be rather a note saying something like "fooled you" or "jokes on you sucker!" cause three flax baskets... who did ms. rhonwyn thinking she was kidding?!?

instead i found several hastily hand written pages and a bundle of maps and what looked like tickets. i read the note she left me:

Traum if you're reading this than there has been a breach in the outer mystic realms, and an atua of some variety has made an intrusion into our plain of existence. Based on the readings and prophecies of a number of Tohunga it is believed this entity, whatever it's form, is after the kete o te wananga which you now carry. Under no circumstances can you allow a single one of these baskets to fall into its hands!

Your task is to take the kete o te wananga to the various museums and institutes on the list i've provided. Hopefully the mana of these places will draw the kete o te wananga back to the upper plans where they belong, and thus prevent them from falling into the wrong hands.

Because of the tapu of these baskets it is very important you follow the following instructions:

• DO NOT under ANY circumstances OPEN the kete o te wananga. It
  will reveal your position, and exposure to the atahu essence
  contained within the baskets may dangerous, unpredictable, and lead to long-term harm of yourself.
  

• Ensure you spend at least 15 minutes in each museum and location on the list to ensure the baskets have a time to adjust to their mana.
  

• Do not panic if the baskets leave of their own accord. That is the point of this mission. However ensure they do not disappear because of atua for if they capture even one they will be able to use it to recover the other two.

At moment I do not know which atua is after the baskets. It could be any of the main deities or possibly even a taniwha, hopefully I'll have been able to brief you on this aspect of the mission by the point you read this, and you'll know. No matter its form though remember with atua:

• DO NOT under ANY circumstances OPEN the kete
  o te wananga. I know I've said this already, but it is unbelievably important Traumador!
  

• Keep as low and secret a profile as you can. Hopefully
  you can accomplish this mission without having to risk an encounter with any outer world creatures! At the same time ensure you stop at EVERY location on that list. Do it in order so you do not have to risk back tracking.
  

• Avoid electronic communications as much as possible. Do
  NOT contact me via these medium! Due to the physics of mystic energy it imprints on natural radiations. Meaning any electronic transmission you make like a phone call or sending an email would be coated with mystic energy which atua are attuned to, and thus leading to it detecting your exact location.
  

• Learn the quirks and specifics of the atua following you.
  Many of them have servants and totems in this realm that may compromise your secrecy. By knowing what these are in advance you can avoid an unnecessary encounters

Sorry I couldn't include the necessary documents on Maori culture,
but I have included New Zealand Museum Gift Certificates so you can pick up any books you might need along the way.

Traumador I can not stress enough the importance of this task I've given you. I wish I could have given you backup, but this needs to be a low profile mission otherwise risking detection by more atua. The FATE of New Zealand's spiritual and mystic fabric rests in your hands! Make sure this gets done right!

Good Luck

~ Ms. Rhonwyn ~

okay she sounded pretty serious i thought reading it. i just wish she hadn't included so many maori words. i can't read them, and sure don't know what they mean...

well except tapu. that has a whole display at the otago museum i've read a couple times. tapu is kinda like a maori mythical rule code. people might say it means taboo, but it's more like a code of conduct. if you do *such and such* than this will be the consequence...

so taking what i understood of this note (wish my brain was bigger or i spoke maori)...

there's something after these baskets. if i open them bad stuff will happen (see good thing i didn't poke around with them earlier). i need to take them to bunch of museums throughout new zealand where i'll somehow get rid of them? if i make a phone call than the thing after me will be able to track me down. lastly somehow these things were key to new zealand, again somehow?

so ms. rhonwyn wanted me to take these baskets to some museums. which ones i wondered?

opening up the bundle of maps and tickets i stopped breathing for a second!

in front of me were tickets, car rental arrangements, and maps for EVERYWHERE in new zealand!!!

back to my original thought. i sure could do with more of these promotion based tasks!!!

to be continued...