1.32 Riddling room
1454 Words
There were two saying on each of the side walls. They all looked to be about the same length, so Luca didn’t think much of it and just approached the first one on the right. Luca looked it over it was a short paragraph of images, so he wasn’t sure what to expect when he touched the print. There was a short pause before the sweet voice spoke.
“We came first across the land,
Harsh and swift with a punishing hand,
those wild beast upon the ground,
reliant on senses but hard to mislead.
can only hide when we pass by,
without a guard they flee like mice.”
The recording ended and Luca blinked twice. Poetic clues how lovely. Because naturally guessing clues wouldn’t be hard enough, they had to be poetic since those are normally cryptic and metaphoric anyway.
[Rӓv: Cryptic much that’s the sort of thing I expect to see in some idiotic prophecy.]
[Lucky: Focus, with a translation have a look at the pictography to see if it gives different clues.] Holly nodded like a pecking bird before he moved in front of the wall and stared at it hard. Luca hadn’t meant him but to be fair Luca also hadn’t given Holly any specific instructions, so the guy probably wanted something productive to do. Luca stepped to the side and looked at the next paragraph. Looking nit over Luca found the print then turned to look at Rӓv. When she nodded the okay, so Luca touched the print.
“Those ruby eyes that see through life,
useless before our endless might,
chasing blood with a feverish sight,
trapped forever in darkest night,
we can leave them adrift,
with one clean strike.”
Second verse same as the first. Luca wasn’t terribly surprised at the second cryptic poem. The main issue was that the only think it seemed to have in common with the first was the way that the ‘who’ was referenced as overpowering and dangerous. Which could refer to a great many things.
[Holly: Actually this symbol here in the middle of the third line, it kinda looks like the grim fairytale depictions of a werewolf.] Luca stopped misstep as he started to cross the room and turned back around to face Holly. Looking where he pointed Luca had to agree that the depiction did look like a werewolf. If he recalled that was about where the passage mentioned a beast. With narrowed eyes
Luca turned to the passage that had just been read and scanned over the images. There in the third last line was another monster like rendition. It somewhat resembled a ghost or ghoul or maybe a vampire? Thoughtfully Luca moved across the room and after a quick check with Rӓv Luca started the next passage.
“A graceful beauty amongst the trees,
fast and deadly with the whisper of leaves,
These land bound cousins stuck in place,
as we move about with a carefree pace,
till a fancy takes and we ravage and rage,
leaving nothing but destruction in our rampage.”
Luca stared hard at the passage but rather than a monstrous depiction there was instead a rather pretty picture of a lady? Or man? Dancing. It looked quite lovely. Which probably means that it is horribly dangerous. Maybe a succubus? Would that mean that the ‘I’ was a demon?
Since the image in the sliding room was somewhat religious in nature it seemed possible to use monsters to illustrate the horror of a devil. Though at the same time the description nor movement and entrapment of different things doesn’t read like the typical demon. On the basis of just the third passage Luca might have thought the plague. With no clear answer Luca moved to the fourth passage in the hopes that it would make things clearer.
“The stout devisers seeking shelter within our embrace,
toiling away with their metal and tools,
they rely on us like helpless fools,
Leave them alone since they mind their space.”
Luca stared blankly after the voice vanished. That makes things as clear as mud. Luca wanted to thump his head against something.
[Rӓv:…]
[Holly:…]
[Tails:…]
[Ghost:…]
[Lucky: I know I normally subscribe to the rule that if you don’t have something useful to add don’t add anything but sending ellipses one after the other is not helpful, in fact its anti-helpful.] once he finished typing Luca wanted snarl in frustration but at the last minute, he raised a hand and clamped it over his mouth. The sudden rise in his emotions was irrational. Ghost appeared behind him and also placed his hand over Luca’s mouth. Luca relaxed and focused on wrangling his emotions under control. Now that he thought about it, he wondered how much of his other emotion swings were related to this cube. He hoped that it was only a result of him activating this room, but they’d all touched the tiles and traps and such in the areas before.
Though as Luca calmed down, he considered the matter it wasn’t like he was feeling emotions completely out of the blue. It was more like an extreme amplification of what he already felt.
[Lucky: Sorry. In an effort to prevent others from having the same outburst. Be aware that something here may extremely magnify your emotional state.]
[Rӓv: I just want to say that when Tail’s and I were affected we nearly got into a brawl. While you didn’t even break the silence you’d imposed for the room. I wish we all only reach that level of out of control.] Nods followed all round as Ghost lowered his hand and came round to face Luca with a concerned expression. Luca gave him a nod before taking a deep breath and turning back to the rest of the group.
[Lucky: Right let’s get out of this room. What do all the passages have in common?]
[Holly: Danger, well hmm the last one doesn’t fit that.]
[Tails: Power? The entity is more powerful than the other things.]
[Lucky: Yeah, I’d agree with that so let’s figure out what the other things are.] The room felt weird with the silence that pervaded as we messaged out our discussion. Luca supposed it was rather what it would be like in a room full of telepaths.
[Holly: I’m pretty sure that the first one refers to werewolves. It’s the most literal and the monstrous reference would suit the religious leaning that we saw in the previous puzzle.]
[Tails: I think we should focus on more popular monsters than obscure ones.]
[Rӓv: Oh? You know what monster were popular for this unknown ancient society?]
[Tails: More like some things tend to go together. With werewolves its vampires.] Luca looked around but no one seemed to have a counter to that point.
[Lucky: I’m inclined to agree that the second would be vampires given the mentions of night and blood those are common associations.] still that left two passages that Luca wasn’t as convinced of. While the pretty person could be a succubus and that was a demon cousin, they were not known for living in forests nor was there a typical myth about them being limited in travel.
[Holly: So what common monster lives in the forest? And doesn’t travel?]
[Ghost: Is long list. Depends on culture.] Luca had to agree on that point so for the next twenty minutes they traded ideas about various monsters. However for each one they either didn’t live in a forest or not only in a forest or they didn’t have limits on travel.
[Holly: Maybe we should look at the last one first.]
[Rӓv: I think the last might be a dwarf. Lives underground, fondness for metal.] Luca blinked that made a weird sort of sense.
[Holly: But Dwarfs aren’t monsters?]
[Rӓv: According to who? In some renditions they are barbaric and possessive of their land or warmongers like the Vikings of old. That would be monstrous in some stories.] Luca paused considered that and had to agree that could be a pretty terrifying rendition particularly in conjunction with the idea of the dwarfs being superior in weapons and living underground.
[Lucky: Then maybe the other is the Fey? Live primarily in forest. Incredibly close natured not prone to traveling outside their territories. Good fighters. Beautiful but prone to stealing children and some indications as to the enslavement of other races?]
[Rӓv: That is not the first impression I have when you day that name.]
[Holly: Though when you put it like that it makes sense.]
[Tails: Then the main question is what is a cousin of the fey that dominates werewolves and vampires and shelters Dwarfs?]
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