A Forbidden Forest Mystery is Afoot

[Nicole Halley]

Idea: there's a concentration of magic or a magical item that's been protected within the forbidden forest. It's been protected for centuries. Until Dr. Bryant Tannen stumbled upon it... or did he discover it by expertly following ancient clues? 

What is it: a sealed cavern with a mysterious crystal, a pool of magic that can show the future or the past or alternate timelines, an alethiometer type device that can answer any question truthfully, an amulet that allows the wearer to read the minds of people, other ideas?

How it starts: Bryant suffers some odd effects from either the magical object or due to the effort needed to break the enchantments to get inside or he just wants to tell someone what he finds. He met Atticus once and is pretty sure that makes him an unspeakable now and shows up in Atticus' office.

Then what? Anyone want in?

Lawrence Gable

[Dr. Bryant Tannen]

I don't think that Bryant would find this cave through skill. It's more likely that he sleepwalks to it and is like, huh, that's weird. I'm imagining him just being in Atticus' office with his feet kicked up on his desk when Atticus comes in for the morning or something.

As far as what the mysterious object does, I've implied in the past that Bryant can read the threads (literally the ones on this board, Idk how, he's just Bryant). Maybe it's' tied to that idea somehow. Sort of like the key to alternate universes/reading folks' mind but getting a bit more meta with it.

Nicole Halley

[Nicole Halley]

Haha, I was thinking he might follow the clues expertly by accident. Playing into your idea that he's either the most incompetent or powerful wizard. 

I'm totally down with the meta idea. We could get another plot line or two going to give him material. Atticus will think he hit his head so hard he sustained brain damage but maybe there can be a thread before hand we do with Atticus and someone else that would give Bryant some information he'd couldn't possibly know that makes it seem possible. I think that could be really fun to develop other ideas and Bryant might just randomly intervene or mess something up. Or he suddenly knows personal information about people he's never met. 

[Lawrence Gable]

That's really funny, I like "expertly on accident." That is aggressively Bryant.

In that case we need another Atticus/Travis character thread for the meta plot to work, unless someone else wants to jump in. I love this idea.

[Olivia Moretti]

I am always willing to throw a character at Bryant. If Rip can fit in anywhere I would be down.

[Nicole Halley]

All are welcome!! Would love to get your characters involved. 

[Dr. Bryant Tannen]

Jumping off of Bryant knowing things he shouldn't, maybe start with some kind of inter-department thing where Atticus and Rip are working together and later Bryant just swoops in with all of his knowledge of whatever that case might be. For Atticus, it could be the thing that makes him take Bryant a bit more seriously, though in this world he'd have to rule out legilimens.

I'm also imagining Bryant dodging Rip as he sneaks around the Ministry for some reason lol He really should not be there.

[Nicole Halley]

Were you thinking a separate thread with Rip and Atticus and then after the thread with Bryant? 

Some ideas for what ministry thing could be going on, let me know what grabs you guys:
1) A dangerous item in the Department of mysteries has gone missing
2) There have been an outbreak of natural disasters in muggle towns that are becoming dangerous and appear to have a magical cause
3) Ghosts have learned that they might not be able to physically interact with the world, but they can make sound and are using these sound waves to cause havoc
4) Someone has cursed books in muggle libraries causing illustrations to come to life when they're opened. Several different libraries have been infected and they need to find out where the books came from before a muggle gets hurt


Other ideas? I'm about to make two criminals that can jump in as the plots develop

[Dr. Bryant Tannen]

That's what I was imagining, so that we can have some nice information that there's no way Bryant could know.

I love all of these ideas but I think think #1 is the best one for a smaller start. #3 reminds me of Havana Syndrome and tbh would be kind of funny to explore on its own too.