AlHazred Posted January 3, 2008 Report Share Posted January 3, 2008 So, my Conspiracy Fu feels rusty. To remedy that, I submit a challenge: give me two or three elements and I'll build a conspiracy around them. I need the elements (people, organizations, things, places, events, etc.), the setting/timeframe, and whether you want a Standard, Weird, Mystic, or Fortean Conspiracy. Definitions: Conspiracy: A group of individuals forming a secret cabal to achieve power, usually political, social, or economic power. Weird Conspiracy: A Conspiracy which includes elements of unusual technology or fringe science in the service of the Conspiratorial cabal. Mystic Conspiracy: A Conspiracy that includes supernatural elements. Fortean Conspiracy: The wildest Conspiracy theories, including anything up to giant monsters from outer space, fish or frogs falling from the sky, and so on. EDIT - I should add that, while I won't remove elements from anybody's list, I reserve the right to add a few elements to string things together better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Comic Posted January 3, 2008 Report Share Posted January 3, 2008 Re: Challenge: "Riddle Me This!" George Bush's hairstyle. The price of tea _in China_. The world yodelling championship in Austria. Any time between WW II and 2010. Weird. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Narratio Posted January 3, 2008 Report Share Posted January 3, 2008 Re: Challenge: "Riddle Me This!" Here's an easy one then; The Aether (with or without Phlogiston) NASA's space programs The recent boom in communications technology The past decade Fortean Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Liaden Posted January 3, 2008 Report Share Posted January 3, 2008 Re: Challenge: "Riddle Me This!" Circa 1937. The bombing of Guernica. The Hindenburg disaster. The disappearance of Amelia Earhart. Weird Conspiracy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Comic Posted January 3, 2008 Report Share Posted January 3, 2008 Re: Challenge: "Riddle Me This!" Circa 1937. The bombing of Guernica. The Hindenburg disaster. The disappearance of Amelia Earhart. Weird Conspiracy. It is fair if the weird conspiracy is true? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Spence Posted January 3, 2008 Report Share Posted January 3, 2008 Re: Challenge: "Riddle Me This!" San Francisco, 1926. An ancient prophesy. A series of artifacts are stolen from area museums and private collections. People disappearing in the factory district and the industrial waterfront, the police and detectives are at a loss as they appear to be random from all classes and professions. The MV San Gabriela, 8 passenger berths and 5000 tons cargo, vanishes from the sea only three days from port with the eccentric Professor Atterbey aboard. She was returning from the South China Sea. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobGreenwade Posted January 3, 2008 Report Share Posted January 3, 2008 Re: Challenge: "Riddle Me This!" Let's try a Weird Conspiracy covering the similarity of moustache styles between Charlie Chaplin and Adolf Hitler, the phases of the moon, and Carhenge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlHazred Posted January 3, 2008 Author Report Share Posted January 3, 2008 Re: Challenge: "Riddle Me This!" George Bush's hairstyle. The price of tea _in China_. The world yodelling championship in Austria. Any time between WW II and 2010. Weird. During the Second World War, China fared poorly. Due to a number of circumstances, Japan was able to inflict heavy casualties on Chinese regulars, and during the course of the war occupied several parts of mainland China. To the Chinese patriots, this proved an intolerable blight on national honor. A cabal was formed of Chinese ultranationalists, with one goal in mind -- the total subjugation of Japan and its controlled territories. But how to do this when Chinese allies and resources were few? The solution was proposed by one of the most obscure of Chinese ultranationalist leaders. This individual, an aged gentleman of great scientific knowledge who had served the Empress Dowager as an administrator of Ho-Nan province, had developed a chemical which, when ingested, induced in the subjects a state of suggestibility that could be activated by a specific series of sounds. His tests with drugged captives and his fanatical dacoit agents (whose normal method of communicating over long distances, namely incredibly loud cries, gave them extensive vocal range and ability) showed that the chemical worked well, but needed regular infusions over long periods of time in order to induce the proper level of control. The matter then was to determine a method by which the chemical could be distributed worldwide, to maximize its potential to win the Chinese allies against their hated foe. In the years following the War, the Japanese had proved resourceful and determined, and showed no weakness on the world stage. Instead, they had exploited what advantages they could gain from their allies and were making rapid strides towards becoming a world power. Faced with this, the cabal developed a method whereby the chemical could be infused into tea before shipment. The process by which tea is made would release the chemical into the resulting beverage. Tests set up in Great Britain proved the system could work. By leveraging their control chemical, they managed to steadily increase the prices they charged for their wares, allowing the cabal to fund increasingly bold maneuvers in their shadow war. After several decades, the plan seemed poised to succeed. Tainted tea had become the most popular drink in Britain and India, and seemed to make serious inroads into the United States; this was important, as the USA was seen to be the primary Japanese ally, and provider of most of the technologic might which the Japanese could bring to bear. If Japan was to be defeated utterly, the US would need to fall into the cabal's hands. Unfortunately, here they came into conflict with a rival cabal, the soft drink manufacturers of the American Beverage Association (ABA). What the ABA's goals are has never been revealed; it is unimportant in any case, as their stranglehold over the US beverage industry threatened the success of the long-term plan. A process of multiculturalization was begun to attempt to infiltrate the US market on a number of populist fronts. But it wasn't until 2006 that the cabal got its most important break. The cabal had long thought that if the President of the US could be swayed to their side, then the rest of the country would fall. The current President, George W. Bush, had long been exposed to the Chinese tea; unfortunately, he remained inviolate, protected by the ABA and its highly-caffeinated Men in Black. The opportunity presented itself during the World Yodelling Championship in Vienna. President Bush had been invited by Austrian Prime Minister Heinz Fischer to tour Austrian culture during his visit that year. Eager to learn some of the talents of the country musicians he favored, the President was invited to a yodeling tryout, where an attempt was made during a particularly powerful rendition of the main theme of the Sound of Music. A scuffle erupted between ABA agents disguised as mimes and dacoits of the Chinese cabal, who drove their taxis from all over the city into the arena in the initial assault. The details are hazy, but the ABA declared success afterward. But I know the truth. A careful mathematical analysis of photographs of the President immediately before and after his Austrian visit reveals a subtle change in his typical hairstyle. Many of my fellow Seekers After Truth dismiss my results, but I think the implication is clear: during the scuffle, the President was taken by the cabal and was initiated into the dacoit order! As is well-known, as part of the dacoit initiation ritual, prospective members are required to receive a brand of a serrated knife on their foreheads, just under the hairline. The President must have been initiated while in a suggestible state, and then was returned with his handlers none the wiser! His hair was rearranged to avoid chafing his new sign of allegiance! You must listen to me! We must eliminate all sources of yodelling and work to limit the distribution of any music which might have been tampered with by the cabal! We must march on the tea importers and dump their cargoes in the harbor! It will be a clear sign of our motto: "No ingestion without carbonation!" Raise your Cola high and sing it with me! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlHazred Posted January 28, 2008 Author Report Share Posted January 28, 2008 Re: Challenge: "Riddle Me This!" I was pretty busy for a while with a combination of work and helping people get their games ready for Dreamation 2008. Now that that's done, I can get back to this. Let's see if my subconscious has worked on them in that time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JakSpade Posted January 28, 2008 Report Share Posted January 28, 2008 Re: Challenge: "Riddle Me This!" A reclusive genetics scientist... A conglomerate of pharmaceutical companies with patents that run back to the 1920s... A group of biological scientists that work solitary for a company they've never seen for an obscene amount of money... A mysterious flower that grows at the rim of an isolated asteroid crater... A cloned Chirpah guide... A frozen library of genetic specimens from all over the world... A monorail to the Mariana Trench, the deepest place on Earth... And battleship sized amphibian creatures growing in the seas, disrupting shipping lanes and unbalancing the natural order of things... (watch the 1 season series "Surface"...) jak Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlHazred Posted January 28, 2008 Author Report Share Posted January 28, 2008 Re: Challenge: "Riddle Me This!" Okay, I said "two or three" not "eight or nine" elements. You, sir, go to the end of the line! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Hiemforth Posted January 28, 2008 Report Share Posted January 28, 2008 Re: Challenge: "Riddle Me This!" How about a Mystic conspiracy involving the following elements? Charles de Gaulle Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles Las Vegas Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jtelson Posted January 28, 2008 Report Share Posted January 28, 2008 Re: Challenge: "Riddle Me This!" How about A fragment of the Gordian Knot KLEE-TV A Game of Six Degrees of Sir Francis Bacon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JakSpade Posted January 29, 2008 Report Share Posted January 29, 2008 Re: Challenge: "Riddle Me This!" Okay, I said "two or three" not "eight or nine" elements. You, sir, go to the end of the line! Heeheeheehee! Actually, I've figured out the scheme. The reclusive geneticist has created the giant kaiju sized monsters to cleanse the earth of life. He has taken his own cache of genetic material of every living thing on the earth and has created his own "Noah's Ark" city at the bottom of the ocean, where he will wait out the coming apocalypse. Once the creatures have destroyed everything, he will emerge from his ark, and clone and repopulate the earth with life of his choosing. How's that for a Master Plan? jak Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EvilEmpryss Posted February 21, 2008 Report Share Posted February 21, 2008 Re: Challenge: "Riddle Me This!" How about this: The Avian Flu epidemic is actually a conspiracy manufactured by the beef industry in order to stave off falling profits due to Mad Cow disease... a disease created by a certain faction of the poultry industry to help raise poultry sales! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wrestlinggeek Posted March 2, 2008 Report Share Posted March 2, 2008 Re: Challenge: "Riddle Me This!" How about... 1) The Girl Scouts 2) Compact Florescent Lightbulbs 3) Donald Trump Time period: 2012 Let's make it Fortean. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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