RAIXEL'S SUPER SECRET INTRODUCTION GAME

[raixel]

Petal flies back and forth to each statue, looking at them closely.

"Hm. The orc appears to be looking down his nose at me. Perhaps he is proud. As for the others...." She looks slowly at each of them in turn.
"There doesn't seem to be anything special about the others, except for the elf. The elf doesn't appear to be carved as cleanly as the others. Could that make him the 'least'?" But elves are usually considered 'high' by most any other race. But he's the only other one who has anything special about him. It could be that the creator wanted to trick me. I think its the elf, but just to be sure..." She checks out the riddle again, and then the lizard man and human statues again, looking closely at their faces, the positions of their eyes, ect.

[b} If she doesn't find anything, she will take the elf's sword as follows [/b]

Petal carefully lifts the elf's sword, dragging it over to the panel. She lifts it carefully into place and slides it in to the 'dragon' slot.

"Titania, please let me be right...." she whispers feverently as the sword clicks into place.

[beowuuf]

Petal does indeed think, now she phrases it like that in her head, that the orc is actually looking down at her with disdain. While not explicitly famed for it, she is sure in this case the orc is the proud one.

Petal then examines the efl statue, and then the lizard and human statues. Just as with the orc statue, the human and lizard statues are perfectly carved, and could be life-like except for the slight distortion in size, and the cold grey stone. While the elf simply looks like a stone statue, not given the perfect polish and smoothness of the other statues.

Was it really that easy? Is the elf 'the least' because his statue is the least worked, a trick because elves are never considered the least usually?


I'll be mean (or amI being mean?) and giving you one last chance to say yeah or nay to your choice of the elf and the dragon. Don't worry, what's the worst I could do anyway if you are wrong? Ok, ok, I could do something mean to you, but not too mean since I know you don't especially love logic puzzles. No, wait, I probably would do something overly mean. Wow, how nasty am I?

[raixel]

No, thats my final answer, Regis.

[beowuuf]

Ok...

Petal, with some small effort, manages to retrieve the hilt-heavy item fro mthe elf's unresisting grasp. The elf does nothign to stop her, a dead statue. The blade is oddly lighty, as if the stone is porous. She moves the sword towards the dragon, awkwardly gettign the pointinto the slot. With one whispered prayer, she moves back to see the result...

Something inside the 'lock' clicks, and the hilt falls to the ground. Powder is then spat out of of the slot in a dismissive jet, the remains of the lighter stone of the blade.

There is a rumbling behind Petal. Turning her lighted dagger point to the source of the noise, she can see dimly by her sharp eyes that the elf whose sword she stole has started to move. It is a terrifying enough sight that the lack of movement of the other statues is no comfort.

While they look on, the elf almost falls to the floor. There is a nasty snapping sound as it dislocated from the pedistal, standing firm. There is another nasty snapping sound, and the arm that was attached to its body is snapped free at the elbow. Only the one arm can reach forward towards Petal, as the thing lurches at her.

The stone elf is certainly not the swiftest, at least not now. Somehow, thinking that and seeing its strange rocky movements makes a connection in Petal's mind. The elf was rogher, probably, because it was being shown in the final state of death - actually turned to rough stone, instead of a stone representation!

That is not really a comfort, as the horrible figure - looking upwards even as the head tilts down towards her - lurches closer.


Aww, I was being nice after all! Ok, I think you have three choices here.
a) Run! You can either run around it, down the stairs, and risk perhaps it catching up to you once before you outdistance it, or risk tumbling passed it for a potential AoO if you fail, but knowing you could out-distance it probably right away,
b) Try to keep solvign the puzzle, hoping this stops the attack. Of course, that means clever tumbling/distraction/spell use to avoid the elf
c) Attack! No defense like a good offense, right?

The elf is between its pedastal and the stairs at the other side of the room, starting to come towards Petal. Petal is right by the door.

I'll have my fingers crossed for you!

[raixel]

Son of a bitch! Then what WAS the right answer?

Petal flies up and over the elf, dodging her way past it. She flies out over the stairs, and up to the ceiling, staying out of the elf's reach. 1d20+4=22
She reaches out towards the elf, and crooks her index finger, as if miming a 'come here' motion. As she does so, she calls upon the air inn the room to make a solid force behimd the elf. As the air gathers in a mass, she focuses on the rune KATH to charge the air with explosive force. She then brings both arms paralell out in front of her as if forming the sign =.
"ONOHKATHROS" she shouts, hoping the air will be strong enough to push the stone elf down the stairs, where the impact will hopefully break him to pieces. Grr, I forgot what the pull roll is.

[beowuuf]

It's just a flat d20 roll as if bullrushing from the other side, with the spell level replacing any strength bonus.

The puzzle isn't voided, so I won't spoilt it for you unless you are running away!

[beowuuf]

Petal managed to loop around the slow moving Elf statues, although it was fast enough to alter directions and come after her. Petal hoped to catch the statue when it was unbalanced, however there was also a danger or wasting the spell energy when the statue was simply a solid lump of stone with a stable base.

Metaphorically crossing her fingers, the magic was expended...


Will wait for your roll, since IC seems to love you right now

Edit: Your roll needs to beat a 12, though don't assume an instant destruction...

[raixel]

Pull (1d20+3=14) Well...at least its not a 1

[beowuuf]

The statue totters and then stumbles, being pulled over the first stairs. It cannot right itself in time, and falls onto the banniter, starting its slow fall downwards to the bottom of the stairs.

Annoyingly, the statue had resisted well, and its speed collapsing wasn't too great. The steady descent had left a few broken off hand sized chunks (annoyingly no chunks of hand), but it was by no means demolished. The statue fell prone at the bottom of the stairs, and only with difficulty got back up. However, it was apparently more than capable of both getting back up, and then starting its slow walk back up the stairwell again.


Feel free to have the terminator music playing in your head right about now! I gave it a 20 foot equivalent fall, but rolled low damage. I think given the low pull result compared to its resist, this narratively makes sense so I didn't adjust it. Still, the fall puts it out of harms way at the bottom of the stairs if you want to quickly do something in the room, or gives you the higher ground to attempt something else. And if Star Wars has taught us anything, it's that as long as you are the good guy, having the higher ground makes you unbeatable

[raixel]

Actually, thats totally what I was thinkig when I read that, Now if only Petal had some liquid nitrogen...

Petal looks frantically round the room, looking for anything that could be used as a rope, or something that could be dropped from the statue from high up. Perception (1d20+4=11) She has an idea to rope the statue, and jerk it back down the stairs, where hopefully the fall will damage it too severly for it to walk. She is tempted to run back in the room, and try another sword, but was sure that she had gotten the puzzle right. A wrong guess now, causing two of these things, might be more than she can handle. An idea strikes her, and she runs back in the room and is intending to remove the sword from the slot, to see if it deactivates the thing. However, when she gets there, she finds the sword has been crushed to powder by some mechanism within the slot. Nothing but grey dust and a hilt remain. Petal realizes that the hilt is probably useless, and leaves it where it lays.

Ok, so she is looking either for a rope(drapery cord, ect). Or anything she could either pick up and drop on it or something like a chandaleir she could cut a support for, and drop on it. Or something she could push over on it. I think you get the idea.


EDIT: Fixed part with sword to reflect that the sword is crushed.

[beowuuf]

The original sword was crushed in the lock, so the blade was spat out as powder, and only the hilt remains on the floor. It was the heaviest part, and could be used as an oversized rock to hurl with a -2 attack penalty. The other statues didn't come to life when the sword was removed, so she can always take one of those instead, of course...

Although I mentioned the ornate bannister, I didn't think much about the room! I guess I wanted to leave it uncluttered in description so it didn't detract from the puzzle. There is no reason there wouldn't be some simple hanging drapery on two of the side walls with Chaos's symbol on it. . Not liely to have a drapery cord she could easily get to though, unless she took the hanging item and cut the cord away.

Of course, the hanging itself could be thrown over the statue. A little cumbersome, but at the risk of a single attack against her Petal could blind the statue thus avoiding any other AoOs (statue couldn't threaten) and that wonderful 50% miss chance. All the benefits of being innvisible, without expending a spell!

If Petal did that, she could also tug on the hanging. It wouldn't really do any good on its own, but would give a bonus if she wanted to try another pull spell at the stairs.

While the statue was blind, of course Petal would be freer to cut some handing cord off, try to incapacitate the creature's legs, etc - only the attacks on the statues turn to deal with.

[raixel]

Alright, im gonna try it

Petal flies over to one of the tapestries garishly decorated with the symbol of Chaos(is it the 8 pointed star of chaos? I have one tattooed on the inside of my forearm and tries to rip it off of the wall at its highest point, cutting it with her dagger if need be. Once she frees it, she drags it over to the statue, and tries to drop it in a swooping arc over the animated stone. Ranged touch attack? Or just ranged? I'll roll just ranged, apply modifiers if needed Ranged attack with a tapestry. (1d20+8=28) HOLY F'N CRAP! IC BRINGS ME FLOWERS! EAT THAT STATUE! YAAAH! Petal swoops down and drops the tapestry perfectly. Now to see if it will hold the stone being.

After blinding the statue with the tapestry and frantically dodging back from the wildly swinging arms dodge bonus +1 , Petal flies over to the cord that was holding it up and cuts it free. She attempts to tie the rope around the statue so that it cant pull the tapestry off of its head. Sge doesnt know if it has decent enough thought processes to figure it out, but she doesnt want to take a chance it can get the heavy cloth off of its face.Use rope/straight DEX (1d20+4=16)[/b]

[beowuuf]

Out after work, barely updated Westian's when caught by mother on phone for an hour, and in to work early tomorrow... so update will ahve to wait until tomorrow If it helps, you can assume Petal perfectly getthe statue blinded, although the statue will be able to take a blind swing since the 'ranged' attack will still be right beside it

[raixel]

K, I edited the above message to reflect your post then.

[beowuuf]

Forgot to say, tattoo sounds cool. I always link it to the Elric novel Stormbringer and the Chaos Shield! And from the animations, Chaos seemed to adopt the SAR rune, so it will probably be a stylised one of those. Maybe with the eight pointed star burned in the centre, or subtle coming out of SAR's body!

The statue staggered about, unable with its single good hand to really catch onto any binding. The good hand and the stub of an arm flailed but never found the darting pixie's form. It still seemed to move as if hearing her though, whenever she made any noise, so it wasn't completely helpless against her.

Still, the thing simple wandered roughly in the direction of her last noises and flailed sadly. Petal was reasonably sure she had made a good job of the knot (IC loved you enough to get you above the DC15 for a good knot), and even then, the statue just couldn't make a good job of untying it (guess who rolled poorly against the escape artist check!)

Looking aroudn the room though, there wasn't too much more to use against the creature. There was a similar hanging on the other side of the room, the statues themselves, and the remnants of the hilt. Not too much to work with. Really, Petal either needed to solve the puzzle, escape while she could, or she could try the stairs trick again, whilst the statue was in a more vulnerable position.


And that's basically where it's at with thoae three options I reckon! The statue isn't too stupid to just walk downstairs and fall, but you could lure it to the edge and have a bonus - because it is blind - for another pull attempt. Same as before, 20 foot fallign damage, and I think if you can beat its resist by 5 or by 10 then I'll max out the first and the the second damage die.

[raixel]

Sorry bout the lack of postin. My mom showed up in town and wanted to hang out, so I hung out with her all yesterday and most of today. As i said earlier. Parents and dnd, hmmmm...
Yeah, I still want to get the runes MON OH KATH RA tattooed down my forearm, but I havent gotten around to it yet. Ive wanted it since I was like 12...If I ever do, I'll take a picture of it and post it on here.

So how much noise could Petal reasonably make if she was flying and not touching the ground? Does the statue have the manual dexterity to go back up the stairs while blinded?

Figuring the statue is incapacitated for now, Petal flies over to the remaining few figures.
"Ok, so it wasnt the elf obviously. If another one of those things animate, I'm gonna be in deep Trolin krat (A sylvan word for excrement)." Petal thinks to herself.
"I wonder who it is. The orc is 'proud' it seems, so its the human, or the lizardman. Hmmm. I wonder if I can take both their swords and put them in the slott one after the other?"
Petal attempts to remove both the human's and the lizardman's swords from their grasps. If it is possible, she will take both of them over to the door, if not then just the lizardman's.

Petal drags the lizardman's sword over to the panel. Holdimg her breath, afraid of what might happen, she slides it into the slot...

[beowuuf]

Aww, real life and parents need to come first! I'd never consider a tattoo, especially not on a sensitive area. I'm just a big wuss! If I tried to get that MON lightning bolt, people would wonder why I chose to get a forward slash on my arm. And a small one at that!

It's pretty easy to go up stairs. Normal animated items actually are pretty quick moving in D&D, so only its odd construction is making it so weird.

Both of the swords are takeable, though not silently, and only one at a time. Feel free to stealth for flying silently - I just imagine Pixie wings having ot beat quite hard to keep pixies up., But I guess they are also quite small, and the statue has a dampener on its head, so it should be an easy rolll. If you ace it, you might get away with the swords too.

So, you wanna go with the lizard first? And do you wanna take both swords with you or just one? And are you still going for the dragon? And will you promise not to hit me if I got something wrong/unclear once I reveal the logic of the puzzle's answer?

I'll update once I know your rolls and actions. Hopefully tomorrow morning before work! Sorry I missed updating this morning and at lunch - time slipped away with me in both cases

[raixel]

"And will you promise not to hit me if I got something wrong/unclear once I reveal the logic of the puzzle's answer? " o,O Ok. That makes me a little nervous. What exactly are you talking about, here?

Yeah, I think I'm gonna stick with the dragon. As far as that part of the puzzle goes, I'm pretty comfortable with my answer. Its the other part that i'm not getting.

So, Petal will try the lizardman sword first (and that is a total guess based on racial prejudice of a pixie) if that fails, the humans. If that fails, i have no f'n clue. I guess at that point, shes gonna tear ass out of there. Then we can discuss puzzle logic. What freaks me out is you saying stuf like what you did and then making me double-guess everything. But I went back thru the puzzle and can't see any other option but the dragon. unless there is anything to make any of the other statues stand out. (Like is one smaller than the other, ect) But I think that would have been covered in the multiple perception rolls. But, just to be safe...

Petal hesitates before she slides the sword in the slot. She really cant risk another one of these things animating, nevermind two. Forcing her mind to still and ignore the clomping of the blinded statue searching for her nearby, she *looks* outward with her power while holding the two swords. Did one of them 'speak' to her, telling her where it wanted to be placed? I'm gonna let you roll this, since I dont know if it should be a knowledge arc, or a straight int, or what. Oh, and if needed burn a 0lv too. Based on the above roll, she will either put the most 'likely' sword in, or abort everything and go try something else.

[beowuuf]

Since there's no point beating you abotu the head with this puzzle, I'll let you use your sorcerersenses here IC hates you for the perception check, but I like you, so I'll let you burn an effect and take 20 on the perception roll. And I rolled stealth for your actions, and got a 20, so at least sometimes IC likes you too The delay in the take 20 will cost you a final attack from the elf statue (since it has the time to do a sweep of the room) though.

Petal couldn't see any difference in the two swords. However, she had been able to move silently about the room, drawing the elf statue off in the wrong direction. It was currently pounding upon the human statue over in the far corner.

She looked to the two swords, but only memory let her know which was from which statue, they looked identical. Stretching forth her senses, and touching each in turn, she ignored the elf statue, and lost herself in whatever magic was enchanting this place. It was very subtle, and she took a long time to feel it, but the second sword - the one from the human statue - seemed 'eager'. It just seemed to want to be used.

Petal didn't really doubt her assumption the dragon was the slain foe, but she also felt the small link from the sword to the dragon lock anyway. More confident, she slid the sword with some difficulty into the dragon's mouth. Nothing happned for a moment - which was at least better thatn what happened previously. Petal then realised that the diagonal tile looked moveable, and tried to twist the sword and tile around. The tile moved easily, and then there was a very loud rumble from the door.

The elf statue, by the this time, had stumbled far closer to the door, and moved toweards the sound. Luckily, its blind swings were at the door instead of where Petal moved to.

The door opened to a brief corridor followed by another stairwell going upwards. Was it leading to the way out?


I'll pause there just to let you decide if Petal insteantly rushing up the stairs, or does anything first - like draw the statuie off, or cast a spell incase a dragon is in the next place If Petal delays for perception, etc, the elf will probably get a free swing though - it is just moving aroudn the door area swinging wildly right now.

Ok, the logic of the puzzle was this - that you needed the three elements - logic, character knowledge, and perception on the statues - to complete it. You had all the elements, so it was just putting it together.

The elf was not the least, I didn't lie with any knowledge. I realise it was a bit misleading that the puzzle could have been tricky, and it only refered to the statues. Anyway, the idea was the elf had to be dead. Therefore, the condition of the statue was showing how it had died. It looked more like stone than the others, because it had been killed by the basilisk. Note that the basilisk could have been either the distance killing creature, or the creature with scale and limb. However, since you know the elf was not the least, then the elf (smartest) was killed by the distance guy (basilisk)

The orc looked proud, so we know he was killed first. YOu already ruled out the wolf as being the creature killed. It doens't have a 'twisted way (dragon neck or coils) and it doesn't kill at distance, so the orc was killed by the wolf.

That left the serpent and the dragon. And the one killed had 'limbs' so couldn't be the serpent, so you were right about the dragon. Petal knew the swiftest was either the elf or lizard, and the elf wasalready tied to the basilisk, so that means the lizard was killed by the serpent. And that left the human (sometimes seen as the least, since humans aren't exceptional compared to any other race, just widespread and flexible), and so it was the human what killed the dragon.

I had hoped the character knowledge and perception portions would make the puzzle itself less painful, and obviously there was a mechanism in place to let you have multiple tries if you fought a low attack/defense but decent hit point critter. Hopefully the logic isn't too flawed. I already see that trying to rule out stuff in a real world setting where you can suspect the puzzle is being decietful doens't work, so have to remember that!

[raixel]

Petal sighs with relief as the door slides open, and flees through the portal. She doesnt want to give the stone elf a chance to catch up to her, regardless of what might be lying in wait on the other sidwe. She will just have to take the chance that she didnt stumble into Chaos' harem, or something of that nature.

"Knowing my luck, I wouldnt be suprised if this happens to be where Chaos' entire extended family happens to live," the annoyed pixie thinks glumly to herself as she moves thru the passage.

Ok, so the puzzle from the player's perspective. I actually like word logic puzzles, when its something like a poem you have to solve, such as this puzzle. Its the ones where I dont know what i'm looking for that I dont like. So here's my thoughts to aid you in crafting future puzzles. I really enjoyed this one btw!

The part about the dragon. Excellent. It took some puzzling out, I actually sat here with a piece of paper and wrote down the 4 creatures and their attributes(which I transcribed as Petal musing ICly). It was excellent. Not easy by any stretch of the imagination, but it also wasn't impossible. All of them had potential attributes of another, but at the same time there were certain things that excuded them. (I know that sounds confusing, what im basically trying to say is like ok, the wolf didnt have scales, so we could automatically eliminate him from the 'right' one. But then the basilisk and dragon could both kill from afar. But the basilisk couldnt kill from up close, and the dragon could. So we know the dragon didnt kill from far away. And so on)
The 'who killed' part though... There was NO distinction between the human and the lizardman to tell which one was the least, the orc was obviously proud and the elf was 'unfinished'. Because there was no distinction between the lizardman and human it seems logical the elf would be the 'least'. Once the elf was wrong, I was guessing. I would have never associated 'least' with the human's 'jack of all trades', and was actually suprised it was the human. When I read that but before i read the spoiler I went back through the posts trying to determine what was different about the human, and I seriously spent like 20-30 min pondering it and couldnt come up with anything. I seriously thought it was the lizardman. If the elf (with a high perception roll) had been described as being 'more natural, instead of carved' or something, it would have provided a better link to the basilisk, but saying the sculptor left it unfinshed' made an obvious link with 'least. That would have been a cool red herring, if there were other distinguishing factors like if each statue had some small trait, or if the poem talked about 'knowledgable but master of none' or something that made it a little clear, I think I coulda got it.

But that aside, as a DM, I know how hard it can be to craft a puzzle, and you did a great job!

[beowuuf]

I did warn you not to hit me Yeah, it's hard to pitch a puzzle in a way not open to the wrong interpretation. I wouldn't wnat to just come out and spoil it was the human in the riddle though. In all fairnes, the point was that there were a few key ways to get a single entity resolved, but otherwise it was a case of using logic to then work out the others. So the human and the lizard were supposed to be at odds - but the lizard was singled out, along with the elf, as potentially being 'the fastest', just like the elf and human were singled out as being 'the smartest'. So if the elf is resolved as the smartest, the lizard has to be the fastest. I didn'#t want it to all come from one source. Ah well, at least you enjoyed most of it, so I'll figure it out if I use something similar elsewhere!


Quickly moving up the stairs, only a short hallway was visible, which ended in another mirror. Already, Petal could see a human face, or at least human eyes and features wrapped in blackened material aroudn the mouth and head. It seemed such an odd, anticlimactic thing. It also meant, of course, that Petal would be trapped if she didn't find a way out of this place.

The experience with the other pixie was still fresh in the mind, but still - if there was a way out of here...

Just to move the story along a little, I'll assume some actions here. Let me know if Petal wouldn't do them, and I'll change it

Petal examined the edge of the mirror, and the wall around, for some form of latch or secret way through. Jsut as before with the male pixie, there was some odd residual energy left from her own time in the mirrors herself. She could feel the strange whisper of the man's confinement. Odder still, there seemed ot be some dark residual energies around. Thinking of Chaos earlier brought it to mind - Lord Chaos had, undoubtedly, stood right here, mockign the champion in the mirror to his face.

And that triggeres a set of emmeories and emotions. Petal came to realise, with horror, that this man was not some Champion. He had been placed here, deep inside Anaias, when the Firestaff used to reside here. While everyone else, during the first sundering, had been trying to fight the evil, this man had come to Anaias to steal the firestaff. For randsom, for weathy, fore the challenge, who knew. He had got deep into this place, and for the sheer contrary nature of the mna, Chaos had formed the tomb into a prison. Chaos had mocked the man as the prisoners grew, but this man was the first.

And Petal could feel, that this man knew the lay out of this place. Sure, it might have changed a little to Chaos's whims, but this man had got the instinct of the prison's workings. Could Petal somehow touch upon that knowledge?


So there you go. Obviously, trying any sort of ressurection stuff would kill Petal, but she could try to subtly root aroudn the head of the frozen champion in the mirror - Kazai if you hadn't guessed! It would give a short cut best way out. However, there is still an elf not too far away who could try to trap you in the place. The celings here are only 10 foot high, the corridor 10 foot wide.

[raixel]

K, I'm gonna roll a will, cuz I'm assuming im gonna need one . If not, use it for something else.
I see what you were doing with the puzzle now. A warning for future puzzles. I have a tendancy to solve them completely IC. So unless im prompted for some reason, puzzles relating to game mechanics or OOC/meta info, I usually wont get, simply because im looking at them through Petal's eyes. So I wasnt thinking 'lizardmen are fast, humans are jack of all trades'. I was thinking 'What is in this room that Petal can use to figure out the puzzle'.' When i wasnt finding anything (the reason why I kept on saying there wasnt any distinction) , I just dont jump OOC and solve it that way. Its a weird quirk I guess, cuz I dont do it intentionally...

Petal hesitantly reaches her energy out and tries to contact the mind of the champion, while keeping most of herself held back. She doesn't like the feel of this man.

While people died or were tortured by Chaos for eternity, all to try and save their land and way of life, this man tried to steal the firestaff. For his own gain. The very thought repulses Petal. Although she believes all beings must be allowed to live free and make their own decisions about how to live their lives, she cannot abide the greed of those who would hurt others for personal gain.

It is the Way of her people. No one in her village cared how you dressed, or what gods you worship, or what sex of person you preferred to be with. Things like that were personal choices. But to take which that does not belong to you, or cause harm without a valid reason was anthema. If she didnt need the information this man has, she would just let him rot in here. Perhaps some time in the hellish prison of the mind would change the man's views.

As she reaches out, the sorceress walls off herself. Hopefully the man's spirit would not notice her intrusion. She is a bit worried about what would happen if such a greedy soul sensed a way out of its torment. As she contacts the man's mind, she feels oily energy wash over her. and pulls back, slightly repulsed. But she must get the layout of this place! She doesnt know if the elf can track her, but the last thing she needs is to be trapped between a dead end and the stone brute.

She carefully reaches out again, holding her willpower and mental shields tight...WILL (1d20+4=18)

Sorry to go off on a CG tangent, but I just didnt want to say 'Petal reaches out for the mans mind.' and leave it at that.

[beowuuf]

The smartest/fastest thing was actually delivered as IC information, I just don't think I did a good job of pointing out it was also metagame information, and not flavour narrative text. Anyway, something for me to think about in future. On to the odd man!


Petal managed to survive the worst of brushing with the man's mind, although his general feel and impulses made her gag. It was as if she were being forced to walk the very narrow clean dungeon floor, with the walls oozing black thick oil that pooled close to her. Unfortunately, that mental image seemed to take hold, and all of a sudden she really was in such a place.

The walls were not visible, so thick was the ooze left and right in this narrow corridor. Petal was actually standing on the floor, not a welcome position, and the ceiling had many low reaching stalagmites that threatened to drip on her. To her left was barely visible a mirror on the wall, only part of the pane being left alone by the muck. To her right, embedded in the wall, was a curved vorpalblade. Although that was so covered in ooze that it could easily be a trick, her hand could pass right through if she touched it.

Finally, directly infront of her on the floor at the end of this shamm corridor of the mind, was a pool of the black oil. It shimmered strangely in the light.


Good enough will save for no physical effects, although low enough Petal needs to make a mental choice to get out of / move around to find the memory. Don't know why my mind wasn't thinking 'will save' and was trying to think perception, etc for the mental trickery. Guess my brian is tired this week!

[raixel]

Gah. an 18 was low enough? I am slightly afraid now.

"Great, now what..."
Petal glances about this filthy room. "I hope my mind is a cleaner place than this." she muses as she carefully picks her way around to the mirror on the wall. Shielding her mind again, she peers within it, ready to back away if a presence or other living mind reveals itself. I'm gonna roll another will. If I dont need it, save it or use it for something else in the room, (the main roll was 16). WILL (1d20+4=20). She also makes her way over to the odd 'sword' and looks it over without touching it. Was it real? She sent her mental senses outward.
"Since I am in a place of the mind similar to my own prison, perhaps my power will be stronger here" she thinks to herself. She sweeps her senses over the room, looking for any sort of clue to the whereabouts of the information she needs.

She doesnt want to touch any of the nasty oil coating this place. That spot on the floor bothers her. She watches it carefully to make sure that it isnt moving or growing.
"Of course. its not like the information I seek could be in a nice, orderly mind. Its always the freak sthat know stuff." she grouses as she searches the area.

[beowuuf]

Eh, he is a master powerful character, even if trapped - and Petal's been reduced! Your will save is good enough for him not to get into your mind, but not good enough to entirely get a free look in his. A 20 would have bought you being able to ignore any of his subtle attempts to trap you, but it would still have beena choice. The 15 - 20 range means he gets to put in a third nasty option....


Petal looks in the mirror, initially seeing nothing except herself being reflected. However, she tries to look deeping into it, and she can see beyond her face and see a dark face, twisted in pain, drifting around under the surface. She raises her mental defenses...

And almost snaps out of the trance. And instantly realises, this would be a bad thing. The strange place she has found herself in is not her mind, but neither is it quite the mind of the thief yet. It could be thought of as an entranceway, but more fittingly a conflux of their two minds. Where does the sea truly start and the sand truly end at the shoreline?

Still, it is a welcome realisation that Petal's mind is powerful enough to be able to pull out when she needs - she will not be swept into the deeps unwillingly. However, it also lets her realise how useless her normal senses are. They are listenign to the world outside, and the world outside is a magical mirror in a room. A room that could contain an elven statue sooner or later.


The mirror does seem to contain some window into the man's mind or essense though...and she knows she can escape at any time if she wants to look into it.

The sword...the sword is strange. Why a sword? Petal's mind wouldn't conjure the image of a weapon for informaiton, would it? A weapon to beat Chaos or his dungeon? No, it seems the most alien of the three areas here. There is some strange resonance to the sword that Petal cannot figure out, but she is deeply uneasy about it.

Petal won't remember, but you will, about the vorpal blade teasing of Chaos's from the background game. So you might guess this is a subconscious trap Certainly, Petal could logically feel unhappy about it.

The spot on the floor does seem to be just a pool of slimy oil. There are edges defineable, like the edges of a pit. Occasionalyl he pit bubbles a single slow bubble of trapped gas escaping. Otherwise, it seems to do nothing.

Look into the mirror? There seemed to be few other viable options. Investigate the pit? was that wise? Or despite her better instincts take the sword?


At least the second will save I'll take to mean you can't get caught by just looking at tyhe mirror, and if you do that, or simply want to leave, then you can. The pit or the sword are less safe options... the sword probably far less safe. Probably. Possible. Maybe. Who knows, really

[raixel]

Like hell I'm touching the sword! I dont want a bunch of gross goo oozes after me.

Petal steels hereslf and goes to look within the mirror, focusing her will on getting the information she needs from the mind trapped within, ready to go back into her body if the man tries to overwhelm her mind.

Ok, so if her senses are back in the 'real world' does that mean she can sense if the statue is coming close? Perobably not, but i figure it wouldnt hurt to ask.

[beowuuf]

Yeah, as you might guess Petal's senses are useless even to detect anything about the physical mirror while her mind is in this limbo. If she tries to concentrate on the physical world her sense perceive at allat all, her mind gets pulled free. So she will have no chance to detect anything in the corridor with her. No harm in asking, of course


Petal managed to keep up her mental fortress against any thoughts that might stray from the man's mind. His 'thoughts' in the mirror, as shown by scraps of his life and experiences, try to squirm around. Teher are creatures and monsters and more often than not his face comes into view, the eyes mocking or angry. However. Petalmanages to patiently wait, and unwillingly scraps of the dungeon around her keep being visible. When they are, she can get the sense as if she is standing in them.

Annoyingly, this place has changed since he moved around - there was never an ascending set of stairs. However, she thinks she can feel the area well enough. Working backwards, she gets where a secret way out is, that leads back to the coils she has come from. From what she can tell, it's not actually the same direction as the made mage went. So perhaps he has gone a different, long way around?


Petal was just about ready to pull free anyway, as the man's face kept coming intothe mirror for longer durations, and the ooze around her seemed to be moving closer and closer, when a physical pain in the real world pulled her back out.

Coming into the real world, time might have passed faster than she thought. The elf statue, still blinded, had attempted to make a grab for her. Luckily in its blind state it had staggered and missed, bumping into her instead of actually grabbing her with its arm. She had a chance to escape!


I thought I'd made a successful set of grapple checks and a resist roll for the next round, until I recalled the 50% miss chance for it still haveing the hanging over its face. Lucky escape! A 19 and a 15 for the grapple checks would have beenhard for Petal to beat. Anyway, Petal has enough knowledge to be able to escape the 'short' way, or probably be able to follow 'Falkor' back out. Your choice which way, and your choice if Petal wants to do anything about the statue, or simply wants to outfly it.

[raixel]

Is her dodge bonus against the statue still up? God, what I wouldnt give for an entangle/grease spell right about now

Petal dodges past the statue, knowing she can probably easily move at least twice its speed. She is still disgusted by the contact with the man's oily mind, and she reflexively shivers as she flees from the statue. She thinks on what she has learned, deciding it would probably be best if she stayed away from the area the crazy mage went. So she decides to take the other path. Trusting in her memories of what the man saw, she flies in that direction, hoping the staue wont be able to catch her.

Edited for clarity.

[beowuuf]

Petal follows the path from the bits and pieces she took from the man. She leaves the ornate little hall, and the perfect statues, and the opil man, and the distressed elf statue far behind.

It is perhaps a little depressing to be back into the bland walls, only altered by the occasional picture of more noble warriors. Seeing these are distressing for different reasons.

The portraits were not here when the oily man had been here, and Chaos had twisted the passages to his whims over time. However, there were still common nodes, and a common logic of where the corridors had to eventually lead to. While Chaos had changed much, he had not completely altered the orientation of the mountain in one go.

And so Petal could spot a familiar triable of grates, even whe nthe corridors now looped, or knew to trust to going in a single direction even though the corridor as it should have been was no longer there.

Eventually, she found stairs that had been in the oily man's mind. Hidden behind a false wall, she walked up them in reverse of his memory. In the oily man's mind, he had silently decended the stairs with growing anticipation and glee, one quiet footstep at a time. To Petal, she was slowly ascending the stairs on as silent a set of wings as she could. And her emotions were more complex than that.

There was a second set of stairs after a landing, and beyond that a familiar and yet odd set of pads and walls. The puzzle seemsed to have remained here. The oily man had solved it in one direction, and Petal had to solve it in another. However, walls shifted on the wings of magic, filling the air with a pure and raw mana scent Petal realised she had not been party to in a long time.

Finally, a single wall stood between her and the corridor she knew had once been a part of Chaos's original dungeon when he possessed the Firestaffm and sought to rule the world. What lay beyond now, though?

The final puzzle element completely, this wall did not move on magical wings, and instead grated and shattered, splitting in two like an old door. The was dust and bits of shattered stone falling. The echo...annoyingly... carried on for a few moments before being muffled.

Petal's dagger light showed a cracked,yet different set of stone walls beyond. The stone was dark, and rough, but still looked like constructed brick. There were dark black patches of either mold or muck deep in the recesses. The wall had opened directly onto a corridor goign left and right.

However, something strange came to her nose. Beyond the unpleasant dusty smell. Beyond the mustiness of the immediate area, rthere was a smell that made her body react in a peculiar manner.

From the left hand side, faint yet undeniable, she could smell the watery, wonderful smell of fresh fruit. Her stomach once more rumbled, reminding her of how hungry and thirsty she was. After all, her body had not eaten in quite a while.


Tehre we go, thought it best to kick you back out this far instead of delay you with stuff. You are now...pretty much...close to the area where Haynuus and Ameena are. Exactly where you are in relation to them I won't be tellign you quite yet, but you are at least close enough you should hopefully join up with those guys sooner rather than later. Hopefully sooner, sicne they are getting themselves into all sorts of wonderful messes right now

[raixel]

K. Just to let you know know, I stopped reading the main thread when the background story ended so that I had no meta-knowledge of what the other chars are up to. Thought it would be more fun that way. Can she use look through wall to get an idea of where the smell is coming from? Or is the corridor a straight-shot. (I know she can only see so far, but obvious bends in the corridor would be a clue.)

The hungry pixie sniffs at the scent of fresh fruit. When was the last time she had eaten anything? She couldn't remember. With horror, she realizes that depending on how long she had been trapped in the mirror, it could have been months. Or years even. The thought makes her stomach growl again, loud in the stillness of the dungeon.

Petal stops herself from tearing off in the direction of the food. It could belong to enemies. But she had to eat, and soon. Forcing herself to move carefully, the pixie flies down the corridor in the direction of the smell.