Take a seat for the Boston Fear Party!

The first and last! task to be completed under the flag of the UKZero Union of (Slaves!)

Mouse:
March 2007, The third month spent away from the UK - thank God - sounds like paradise!

Tallinn, Estonia. Zoe D and I were sat in a pizza café. We were talking of our good friend (The now Imperial) Dexter. 3 months without his charming and playful ways, we missed him with such voracity that we hit upon a plan. We knew he wished for one thing, to see Cambridge. So the venture was struck upon that we should kidnap him one early morning and take him there, picnic in hand, upon our return to the United Kingdom. A few cogs turning in our scheming brains later and we started to discuss building up a back story to why he was being kidnapped. A few more cog revolutions later and we were talking of a Dexter orientated Alternate Reality Game, that would culminate with masked individuals bursting into his room at daybreak whilst he slept, blindfolding him and bundling him into a car, because this is what good friends do. Cue a night of cackling and scheming.

Now, Dexter has a phrase that we know him well for. “No dice, no dice”. So fastforward a little in your mental calendars, for it was on May 1st, that a letter was forged and posted by Zoe D, to the soon to be, sole player in the newly started No Dice ARG.



It seemed my good friend Antonio Gomez had gone up in the world, no longer sending me con letters about my euromillions, he now ran the IBGA. The International Board Game Association. A shady, evil and secret corporation that was in charge of controlling peoples realities. The letter informed our player that they had recently learnt that he had no dice, and that if he didn’t correct this soon, he would be in for grave consequences as his game was about to begin.





The next day, I met Dexter and was quizzed about the letter. Denying any knowledge of it, the blame fell to Zoe. However when later she also denied any part in it, it became a mystery. Our games 4th wall intact, we set about the execution of the next step, the creation of the good guys.

Like all evil corporations, the IBGA could not exist without a resistance movement growing against it. Cue the introduction of the underground group “The Gamblers” to our little game. The gamblers were three men, Tom Green, Harry Plum and Richard Mustard, who had dedicated their lives to fighting against the IBGA. Unfortunately Harry had recently been caught and touched by a big hairy man by the IBGA, and of his terrible circumstances of lack of dice, they offered their aid via a facebook message.



At this point there was a brief recess of about a week, where other gaming events had to be seen to, including the smooth running of the first Journey to the End of the Night Butt!. It was during the planning of one of these games, that we found ourselves having to write up a huge list of code words to be used by players. Dexter lent over and asked me if I had dice on the list of code words. Dice? No Dexter I don’t have any dice. I smiled.

So with bad guys created, we continued with the plan and created the first task Dexter was to complete. We gathered together items that hinted towards the final adventure to Cambridge, a car, a cut out section of a picture of Kings college, a google map image of Cambridge without any information on it, a few bits that were thrown in as chaff (gambling chips, playing cards, a train map with the monopoly locations circled, and finally a USB key was added. On the usb key were sound files of dice being rolled, evil laughter, a very odd video, and a message conversation between Harry and Tom, which would hint at Harry’s demise at the hands of the IBGA.

This set of goodies once gathered was sealed inside a small pot and buried in a nearby park.







Finally through our puppet Tom, we informed Dexter of the burial and asked him to gather it. Then we waited.

Now unfortunately this is where our ARG went a bit pear shaped. So im going to outline very quickly what we planned to happen, before continuing with what we guess happened, and what actually happened.

Upon collection of the package from the park, Dexter was to hand the usb key over to a waitress in restaurant in a nearby town. She would sit him down and bring him a prepaid for dessert with a note underneath it containing further information. Next day a poster would go up in College stating a new play that was to be performed on that day. “No Dice, written and directed by The Gamblers, performed by Dexter” Inside the room of the performance there was to be only a lamp pointing at another note from the IBGA warning our player that he was almost out of time. Finally the note from the dessert was to lead our player to a meeting point where he would finally receive the dice. After this meeting he would return to his residence to find a board game set up in his bedroom. The next morning cue us bursting in and kidnapping him.

Annoyingly none of this came to fruitition, instead someone else unearthed the pot before Dexter at Liberty could find the time to get to it, we still have no idea who did this, perhaps the X we left ontop of the burial was a bit too obvious. Infact Dexter never managed to get around to finding the pot. We had no news or contact from him. Finally it got to the last day before the kidnapping. Another reason for all of this was a celebration of Dexter’s birthday, so things could not be postponed. We sent a message from Tom to Dexter, asking if he was alright. No reply. Finally Saturday night we sent a final email. The IBGA was onto both of them, and moving in for the kill, our player had to escape immediately or be taken for interrogation. It was time for Game Over Dexter.




The Day of the Kidnapping

0200 Finally go to bed after gathering all needed supplied for the day ahead; music, hats, scarves, party poppers, etc.

0600 Wake up, barely, throw myself into a shower.

0720 Wake up Zoe D by calling her from outside her house. Weather forecast for the day, torrential rain. Oh well, out goes the plan for the picnic.

0735 Geronimo Arrives

0750 Operation is Greenlighted.


We were going to get Dexter at LIberty. Get him good. - the only people to get got was you!

0800 Zero Hour. Zoe D, Geronimo and I stood outside Dexter’ at Liberty's flat in full gear ready for a good kidnapping. The choice of soundtrack for this fear creation, and kidnapping was Carmina Burana, O Fortuna, played on a portable music device and speakers, an homage to Joshua Kelly and his brilliantly plannedTrap on Cameron Suey.

Kidnapping Video Here

0815 The Getaway, off we drive to Cambridge with our explayer, now victim in tow.
Soundtrack of choice, the theme of The Prisoner. Note purple monkey dishwasher kidnapper Geronimo needs to work on his evil kidnapperiness.

Getaway Video Here





0945 Arrive in Cambridge, kidnappee’s blindfold is removed to show him where we are.



1000-1830 Fun and Frolics in Cambridge. We all get soaked. A pair of fluffy dice are randomly acquired during a side quest to buy myself a bicycle pump. Interesting and confusing signs were also noted.







1830 Return journey to London and balls. Many obstacles are intentionally placed in way by kidnappers to slow us down. We had originally planned to return to London and arrive to a friends house where a party for Dexter would be already in full swing. Unfortunately due to rain this location was shut and had to be replaced by Geronimo and My house. Problem being that we were in a car with the target with the only set of keys. New plans were made.

1920 Geronimo dropped off at our house to “let our flatmate in who had left her keys inside”. I stay in the car with Zoe D and Dexter in order to collect Geronimo’s bike from outside Zoe’s house. We all arrive back and ‘part ways’ I stand outside fumbling with the bicycle lock until Dexter has left the vicinity and turned the corner. Count to 10 and then saunter back into the house.

1930-2030 (Please return all boats now) Zoe D and Myself wait for the signal from friends that the party is filled with friends and prepared. We are both of course very much on edge right now.




2030 We receive the call. What is more fun than kidnapping your friend? Kidnapping your friend twice. Dexter buzzes us into his block without inquiring who we are. A rookie error.

Second Kidnapping Video Here

2045 Off again with Kidnappee in tow.

2050 The kidnappee is taken to the secret location for interrogation.



Interrogation Video Here

2100-0400 The 'interrogation' lasted long into the night. We were all exhausted by the end. Job well done.

So ends the day of the kidnapping.

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Geronimo D:

So I entered this task later than Mouse and Zoë D. The reason for this being that I was in a different country (Prague) while they were in Estonia and no one was in England! I became involved when they needed extra help to gather materials, come up with ideas for the story and an extra kidnapper.

The Day of the Kidnapping.
After an insanely early start we found ourselves outside Dexters’ bedroom door, music slowly crescendoing. I was on cameraman duty (note the truly outstanding documentary skills).
We burst in on Dexter creating what can only be described as convulsions of the greatest magnitude, which unfortunately as I was the last through the door was not captured on film. As you can see from the film we promptly blindfolded our victim and after a short respite to allow Dexter to dress we bundled him into the car and went off to Cambridge. Here I would like to rebuff comments made by my collaborator, Mouse, claiming that I need to work on my evil kidnapping. Sure, I was smiling ... and bobbing slightly to the music, but Dexter was blindfolded and he would never have known!!! In revenge I would like to highlight Zoë Ds concern that we were a bit loud when we burst in. A bit loud!!! We were kidnapping someone. Politeness wasn’t the order of the day!
Anyway, it was my duty to ensure Dexter remained blindfolded and in place during the hour and half journey from Sidcup to Cambridge. A job that was made slightly harder when he went to get out of the car at a poll booth on the M25!!! But no worries, Dexter was intact and reprimanded for his eagerness to carry on with the adventure.
We arrived in Cambridge and had a day out in the pouring rain seeing the sites of this historic blah blah blah ……..

My next challenge arose on the journey home when I had to keep conversation flowing in order to cover up Mouse and Zoë Ds frantic planning for the next stage. I was promptly dropped off at our next location in order to clean it, decorate it with party regalia and let in, feed and water, the guests. Mouse was informed when this was completed and off they went to kidnap Dexter once again. The result of which can all be seen in our video.

My job was over. I could enjoy the party. All I am left to say is… do people like my silver cowboy hat?
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Zoe D: Ok I wont go into all the finer details all over again but here are some moments that were the highlights for me! You will see on the posting the letter shot a beautiful part of my sock as I did not want my fingerprints on there in case he was as cunning as I had hoped and dusted for prints in order to track us down...but as the story unfolded I quickly realised I didnt need to be as careful as I first thought! Dam it!

After lots and lots of planning and hiccups and rearranging and breaking my promise to myself of never owning a facebook account (the things I do for my friends!) we finally arrived at the day of fun! I have to say I feared for the mighty Dexter as we burst into his room as I discovered I am too nice to be an interigator and didnt like seeing him spasming in fear for a good 5 seconds plus I like my sleep and was so glad I was not him! Yes ok my feeling sorry for him didnt really add to the story so I am sorry for not screaming and shouting with the boys but I was also scared he would never forgive me and hate me for a long while after! So I was inducing fear with fear...

However once we were in the car driving in the rain it felt good to finally be taking the boy to a place that I had cunningly told him 2 days before that I would take him to the following weekend as he had asked so politely and so desperately wanted to go! It was a shame about the rain and lack of punting that could take place but all in all a good day out I believe! Things became tricky when the suprise party location was thrown up in the air but thanks to my parents I managed to prolong the trip home in order to change my shoes and socks and have a drink and other such larks to make up some time.

Driving back was horrible...I dont like rain! But luckily we made it back safely and everybody else got to catch 40 winks from all the excitement and early start ready for the long night ahead...not that Dexter knew that! The second kidnap amused me especially as it was a happy accident that worked well and the suprise party that had been set up was beautiful and Dexter actually jumped at the reception...I think I learnt that fear can actually be happy sometimes!!