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Rosefire 2nd

Between a Rock and a Hard Puzzle

by Errin Lonewood

Among ferocious goblin battlemasters and winged demons, I believe we just faced our greatest challenge yet, a charming, talkative rock.
 
See, we went up this mountain, hoping to find Abraham, so we could get an audience with the council and explain our case. Unfortunately, we had a few obstacles in the way, impeding our progress, and causing Abraham to show up well before we did. I don't know how long he waited nor where he went, all I do know is that there was a specific cryptic means of opening the door and that this friendly polite door guard was not at liberty to help us solve the enigma, granting us access to the trial. After trying everything shy of brute force (which was one of our earlier suggestions), I remembered that those little tater-tot potato people drew something for me. Some kind of a mountain with directional circles around it. After a few more attempts at deciphering what it meant, I tried running in circles as depicted by the drawing. Low and behold, the charming door guard accepted this action and provided us with the riddle:
 
"As the king lay on his death bed, he called his twin sons into the room. He loved them both equally and could not name one an heir while leaving the other nothing. He told them, ‘You will both race your fastest horse to Saltwood, many miles away. The first rider’s horse there would get nothing, and the LAST horse there would be the heir to the throne.’ The sons fled the king’s room, ran to the stables, chose their favorite horse, one black and one white, and raced from the castle walls. Only after a few minutes of riding, they realized the trouble. The first one there gets nothing.
 
Slowing to a trot, they spoke of the problem and both were perplexed. They came upon a farm where a man was working his field. He hailed the young princes and bowed. ‘Why the long faces, my lords?’ They stopped their race and spoke plainly of their dilemma with the farmer. After only a few seconds of thought, he said something to them that sparked a fire in their eyes. They resumed thier Rae and rode as fast as they could to their destination, each looking to overtake the other.
 
What did the simple farmer say to them?"
 
We were nearly at our wits end at our wits' end at this point and felt as though we needed a rest, but Shade wouldn't accept that. He was absolutely determined to see the end of this predicament we'd found ourselves in and committed himself to solving the riddle or dying in the attempt. Given the fact that we were able to provide three incorrect answers before receiving a "punishment" of some sort, Avantis found it appropriate that we distance ourselves from the driven, battle-ready Shade, just in case. Thankfully, he also thought up the answer to the riddle fairly quickly. Early enough that we didn't have to discover what this "punishment" for failure was. The answer to this riddle was to 'switch horses'.
 
The decent mineral-man accepted this answer amicably and the rocks molded inwards paving a cave opening that led to the council and away we went.

Continue reading...

  1. New Journal
    Silversun 4th
  2. Fire Bottles and New Friends
    Silversun 9th
  3. Forboding Conflicts
    Ashleaf 7th
  4. Of Marbles and Mallets
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  5. A Small Skirmish
    Ashleaf 25th
  6. The Harvest Festival
    Mistleaf 16th
  7. One Dirty Hand Washes the Other
    Mistleaf 16th
  8. The Great Escape
    Mistleaf 24th
  9. Greed or Grievance?
    Emberleaf 2nd
  10. An Irregular Sight
    Emberleaf 13th
  11. "Grimgrin"
    Emberleaf 26th
  12. Fortune or Flounder?
    Plumfrost 4th
  13. ...
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  14. Mind Mending
    Plumfrost 8th
  15. Nice Gnomes
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  16. Calamatic Carnage
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  17. Extortion by a Shadowbroker
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  18. A Fool's Errin
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  19. Aggressive Negotiations
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    Skyfrost 14th
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  23. An Absolute Failure
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  24. Security or Self-Sovereignty?
    Greenfire 5th
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    Greenfire 18th
  26. Parting Ways
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  28. A New Journey?
    Bloodfire 15th
  29. Damrel Walmer
    Bloodfire 16th
  30. The Enemy of my Unidentified Enemy is a Conundrum
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  31. A Lake Leads to Large Lanes Left by...well, something.
    Bloodfire 16th
  32. Hiasynth and "Bella"
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  33. Blood and Fire on a Night of Bloodfire
    bloodfire 21st
  34. A Carnivorous Creepy Crow was Killed by my Companions
    Bloodfire 22nd
  35. Goblin Gore Galore
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  36. Spinning Stone
    Bloodfire 26th
  37. Shade and Dagger
    Bloodfire 27th
  38. Keep your Enemies Far and Your Allies Farther
    Rosefire 1st
  39. Between a Rock and a Hard Puzzle
    Rosefire 2nd
  40. The Council of Fae
    Rosefire 2nd
  41. Death With a Side of Truth
    Rosefire 6th
  42. A Night in Hell

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by 3 Armored Kittens · Prodromos v.1.1 - World Anvil 0.9.15.042 © 2017-2024 [en] | Anvil Time: 05:35, Nov 1 2024