The Scene
It's the fourth year of the Wars of the Roses - and the Yorkist rebels are starting to pose a serious threat to the Lancastrian King and his wife, Margaret of Anjou. A major Yorkist army is heading south to join up with forces in Ludlow - and the Queen has commaned her army to cut them off on their way - the battle will happen at Blore Heath. On the eve of the battle a major part of the 10,000-strong army has occupied the historic market town of Eccleshall - seat of the Bishop of Lichfield, a key ally to the Queen, and brother to her Chancellor, Laurence Boothe, the Prince-Bishop of Durham.
Getting Started
In this story you play the part of Laurence, and you have been sent by the Queen to retrieve her son, Edward Prince of Wales, who was last seen in the vacinity of the Garland Inn in Eccleshall. Go to the stated coordinates of the cache and load up the whereigo cartridge to begin the tale, and search for the Prince.
Getting Starting:
Start outside the Crown Surgery, which used to be a 16th Century Coaching Inn. Run the game from your whereigo app, and look for the starting zone under 'locations'. Messages will appear and vitual characters will be available for you to strike up conversations. Then smile, and have fun!
How to Download and Use a Wherigo:
Follow the link to wherigo.com to download the cartridge. Only certain devices can play a wherigo module, so check out the details on wherigo.com. Before you leave home check the module at least opens to the starting dialogue. You can then close without saving. Several nearby Pubs have wifi, in case you forgot to do this and are only now frantically trying to work out what to do...!
Android Technical Tips:
Within the whereyougo app, look inside settings and enter your Login details - this allows you to navigate directly to the download page and load the game from the website. Or download manually (the file will download to your \download folder), and then use a file manager app to move the file from the folder /download to /whereyougo. Sometimes you even have to rename the file (the extension should be .gwc – but sometimes Android adds .download and you need to fix that if it happens). Or you can change the whereyougo app's settings to point to your /download' folder. Android is quite fiddly and unpredicatable! With certain phones it's easier to download it to a normal PC and then email it to yourself or copy it over via a USB cable. Or simply enter your credentials in the app and then launch directly from the website.
- When you open WhereYouGo, before you click ‘start’ click the settings button.
- Make sure GPS is set to be always on (deselect ‘disable when hidden').
- GPS Beep. Please turn it off. It's just annoying for everyone anywhere near you!
- Then save settings and click Location - make sure satellites are turned on here
Historical Accuracy
This is a story, but the names of the characters within are real - most of them died in the battle that followed the events of this story. There is no clear evidence that the Queen's army came to Eccleshall before the battle, but she definitely retreated here afterwards, and stayed at Eccleshall Castle. And the Silver Swan emblem that you meet in this story is real - the Lancastrians did not use a red rose at all during the wars, and the Red Rose only came to be a Lancashire emblem after the end of the wars, when Henry Tudor needed it as a back story to create his Tudor Rose after the war ended. The town of Eccleshall was historically old too, even at the time the story is set - The Bishops of Lichfield lived at the castle, and Bishop Durdent granted the town a charter as far back as... well, I guess you may find that out...!
The character that you play - Bishop Booth (or Boothe) survived the events of this year, and went on to be Archbishop of York and even Lord Chancellor of England - under the Yorkists, Queen Margaret's enemy! You Turncloak!
The SOS series
This wherigo was placed to coincide the SOS#2 event, which is an event designed to help people play and use wherigos. Each monthly SOS event has a theme to help you in something - and have a good ol' chinwag about any caches that are of interest locally! If you are local then why not search for the next one and come along!