Travel and Olympics Month: Where in the World is the Brown Ajah?

[Basel Gill]

For the Brown Ajah Travel Month this year, we are reviving the Where in the World is the Brown Ajah game! The Brown Ajah is going on a virtual tour of the world and we need your help or we may never find our way back home to the White Tower!

 

HOW IT WORKS

The Brown Ajah is visiting a city somewhere in the world and will record information about that place to share with all of you! However, you know us forgetful Browns! Without YOUR help discovering the name of the location we're visiting we might not be able to find our way to the next destination or worse yet... home!

 

HOW TO PLAY ALONG

During the month that the Brown Ajah Travel Event is happening, we will be telling you about the places we're visiting. We will spend two weeks in one location, and then two weeks in a second location. We'll share pictures, historical facts, and other interesting things about the location. As we give details of these places you must try to figure out where we poor, sometimes absent-minded, Browns have wandered off to! When you think you know the answer send me a forum PM. Each person gets one guess so don't send in your answer until you're SURE you know where we're at. The first person to guess where we've gone is the winner!

 

WHO CAN PLAY?

Everyone!

 

The winner of the game will be whoever scores the most points in their guesses.

 

Did someone say points?

 

Yes, I said points. Here's how it works.

 

First location:

Guess correctly before August 4: 4 points

 

Guess correctly before August 7: 3 points

 

Guess correctly before August 11: 2 points

 

Guess correctly before August 15: 1 point

 

Second location:

Guess correctly before August 18: 4 points

 

Guess correctly before August 21: 3 points

 

Guess correctly before August 25: 2 points

 

Guess correctly before August 29: 1 point

 

Questions? PM me or ask in this thread. Have fun!

[Basel Gill]

Basel was all set to lead a couple of aspies on a field trip. He'd made special arrangements to tour the Stone of Tear. Raena and Jea had expressed interest in tagging along. So he gathered Nicana and Kaylahn and met the Sisters outside the White Tower doors, then formed the weave for a gateway. Everyone walked through, and he could hear Raena mutter "Oh, no, not again." Jea gasped, and the aspies both looked puzzled. He understood as soon as he walked through... this wasn't Tear. He remembered last year, when he was an aspie himself, getting lost in a strange city. He had to grab Nicana by the shoulder and pull her back as one of those odd horseless contraptions (cars, were they called?) sped past. "All right, so it's happened again," he said to Raena and Jea. "Must be something wrong with saidar. This isn't Tear. This is someplace... new." He muttered curses under his breath.

[michellem]

Oh yay I've been looking sooo much forward to this!

[Basel Gill]

The group wondered what to do from here, and Basel started wandering to his right. An inn of some kind was a few blocks down. Basel could only stand and stare in the window as people sat or stood watching boxes and flat framed pictures scattered around the common room, which displayed pictures that looked shockingly real, and the pictures moved! The boxes were showing people swimming or playing at incomprehensible games, and he could hear a lot of cheering and booing depending on what people wearing blue did. Basel looked back at the group. "Strangest inn I've ever seen," he said.

[Raena]

Raena was amused that Basel had repeated her mistake from last year. She was pleased that it wasn't her fault that they had ended up in a strange city yet again. The scolding the Amyrlin had given her for getting lost was not something she wanted to think about, the scolding the Mistress of Novices had given her for getting lost with novices in tow even less so.

 

Leaving the novices in Jea's capable hands (she had also been on the last fateful field trip, after all, and should know what to do) she started talking to the people she met on the street. Well, tried to. Most of them looked at her like she was a mad woman. She finally managed to get some pieces of information.

 

She returned to the group. "Well, it seems like we are in a city that is close to the sea again. It is also appears that this is one of the bigger cities in this country,"

[Jeannaisais]

"Well look at this," Jea said to the aspies under her charge. "Another adventure awaits us...who's up for some fun about roaming around? Oooh look I think they serve food in here - we should have enough gold pieces, right?"

[michellem]

It's a good thing that whereever you guys are, you speak their language Superjealous of the aspies who gets to go on adventure!

[nicana]

Nicana follows Jea Sedai and Kaylahn into the inn. The people were wearing the oddest clothes. Most of the women were wearing men's clothing it looked like. The women wearing dresses were wearing them indecently short and with black stockings with no feet in them! Where did we end up? This place is strange!

[Jeannaisais]

"Obviously somewhere with little personal moral," Jea said absent-mindedly in response to the novice as she surveyed the room herself with a very disapproving look. "Haha, over here girls, lets sit at a table and see what happens!"

[Ryrin]

I need more clues.

[Raena]

It's a good thing that whereever you guys are, you speak their language Superjealous of the aspies who gets to go on adventure!

 

After last year's adventure, Raena was always prepared when Travelling to new places, and always brought her translating ter'angreal.

 

Not satisfied with the answers she had gotten earlier, Raena went exploring the city. It looked to be a very old town. Historical evidence apparently suggests that the town came into existence sometime in the 11th or 12th century, she scribbled in her notebook.

[Ryrin]

OK, I forgot a PM.

[Basel Gill]

Basel took a look around the inn, went up to the bar and ordered an ale. He sat there and nursed it for a while as he listened to the talk, which seemed to mostly focus on the events in the moving picture boxes. It seemed no one knew what was going to happen next in the story they were telling. Right now, there was some kind of footrace being shown. "I can't figure out what their calendar works on, Raena. 11th or 12th century could be anytime." He picked up a piece of printed paper. "Does that translating ter'angreal work on written words? This looks to be a food list, and I'm quite hungry."

[Basel Gill]

Basel eventually managed to figure out the food list, and ordered some kind of fish. He leaned closer to the group. "One other thing I found out. I think we are on an island of some sort. I don't know if that helps. Hopefully it isn't too hard to get off of this island if we need to do so."

[Raena]

"You know what I have noticed," Raena said to her companions. "They seem to be flying two different banners here: one with a white diagonal cross on a blue background, and one is red, white and blue with a diagonal cross and a normal cross. How curious."

[Basel Gill]

Basel took a bite of fish, which for some reason lay on top of a printed broadsheet. There was a side of fried potato wedge which he found quite tasty. "That isn't anything I understand. Maybe one is a provincial banner? Or a House banner? And the other could be the national sigil? I don't think I want to try the dish called haggis on this list, from what I gather about it, it sounds unappetizing."

[Jeannaisais]

Having finished their meal, Jea decided it would be fun to take the aspies outside to roam around for a time. "Curses," she muttered as they neared the door and saw that it was raining heavily. "If only I could channel and make this stuff go away...but that would probably get me in really big trouble."

[Basel Gill]

"Wait a minute, I think I've figured out how I got the weave wrong," Basel says. "We should do this somewhere private. The alley next to this place should do nicely." Without another word, he finished his drink, got up, and headed around the side of the building. Excitedly, he made another gateway and dashed through. Raena and Jea hurried the aspies along as Basel looked around. "This still isn't the flaming Tower!" he muttered to himself, and turned around to see everyone already through the gateway, which collapsed in on itself as he watched. The air was filled with cacophony and noise, as untold numbers those self-moving carriages emitted a loud honking noise.

 

Thanks to everyone who guessed the first half of the puzzle... the Brown Ajah has just left Edinburgh, Scotland! Try to figure out where we are this time. The answer will come in two weeks, along with the month's winners.

[Jeannaisais]

Jea hurried the aspies and other two aes sedai out of the way of the noisy contraptions which appeared to want to eat them. "Look at all these markings," Jea said in fascination once she believed all were out of the way of getting eaten. "I have never seen anything like these. Raena, Basel, neither of you would happen to have something to translate these markings would you? I could probably spend decades trying to do so myself!"

[Raena]

Raena comes to Jea's rescue with the translator ter'angeral. I should have brought more than one, she thinks but decides to leave the device with Jea since she seems to have an interest in the strange markings that must be the local language here.

 

She steps away from the group and looks around. All around her there are buildings tall enough to rival the White Tower itself, and she gets the feeling that they have ended up in a very, very large city. Judging from the atmosphere here, they have ended up in a place far away from the other city, the one called Edinburgh.

[Basel Gill]

"Those are some very large buildings. Not as tall as the mountains I can see, but they are still pretty tall," Basel mused. "Perhaps if Jea figures out the translation, we can get directions to Tar Valon."

[Raena]

After many hours of exploring and speaking to the locals, Raena sat down with her notebook.

 

The name of the city apparently means "Capital City" which I suppose is a logical name for a capital. The river the city is located on is called the Han river.

[Basel Gill]

Today and tomorrow left to guess.

[Basel Gill]

All guessing is closed. I will have the points up tonight. Thanks to all who played.

[Basel Gill]

OKay... first off, I would like to congratualtte our second place winner, Misheru! Mish had a correct guess of Edinburgh in the first half of the thread!

 

 

Also guessing correctly was Ryrin! Ryrin guessed earlier than Mish did, and sent it in early enough for an extra point. Ryrin wins the month's contest!

 

I'm kind of bummed that there were no guesses at all for the second location. The Browns spent the last two weeks in Seoul, South Korea! And the food was delicious!