"Well, crabs walk sideways and barns have broad sides, so I doubt they'll have much trouble."
[dice=Sense Motive take 10, hunch]10+21
It seems to be genuinely curious about the answers to these questions, and attempting to communicate with you.
Oh? Yes. Continue. What is the orbital declension of the Lilac Star when sea snails cry beryllium tears?
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"Well, first are we talking in terms of speed, or time? Beryllium is a metal, I know that. Things cry when I burn them. Beryllium has a high melting point. So I must be burning something that's at least partially resistant to fire."
"A Lilac Star sounds like some unfortunate euphemism that Amanorm would use, but I'll instead go with it meaning a star fish, they can be purple."
"Since I've yet to burn any fire resistant snails, nor have we seen a purple star fish, one must assume that the orbital declension must take quite some time."
"I would wager a guess at around twenty three years. Give or take."
Z shrugs with her arms and looks at everyone else.
"That math seems solid, yeah?"
It waves its tendrils wildly.
Correct! it cries, though you catch a sub-current of displeasure. Your subconscious screams at you that the Lilac Star is not a starfish, but a celestial body, and the coordinates pop into your brain...though are largely meaningless gibberish to you.
When seven nines orbit one three how long does it take for the food to get cold?
You begin to notice faint images as it speaks with you, snippets of your own memories thrown up into the air around the creature.
One image in particular is seared into your minds, Amanorn in a mirror, caught in flagrante delicto with a buxom dwarf woman. At least, you assume it's a woman, the beard does kind of muddy the waters.
This still is not hostile intent on its part; It appears to just be something it does reflexively.
"I feel... Cold, shame, and not too little disappointment...I think....is this the feeling of death?"
"Hm." Jones seems uninterested in the image before him.
"Anyway. If we assume that "orbit" implies an exponent, then that would be three times one, raised to the power of seven times nine. Three to the power of sixty-three. So, it would take approximately 1.14 times 10^30 minutes for the food to get cold."
Hmm. That was a pleasant memory. Damn but if she didn't have the softest beard.
While the others work on the riddles, Amanorn seems distracted trying to figure out what this thing is, exactly. Then, an idea strikes him... "Your turn; if a tree falls in the woods, and no one is around to hear it, then what is the sound of one hand clapping, and how is it related to the true secret to happiness?"
Darius sighs at the display confused by the creature, jaded to the feature of Amanorn. " The elf makes a masturbation joke... "
[dice=Will Save]1d20+14
Darius sighs at the display confused by the creature, jaded to the feature of Amanorn. " The elf makes a masturbation joke... "
[dice=Know Nature]1d20+20
Everyone sticks around long enough for the money shot, unable to rip their eyes away from the image.
On the bright side, Darius and Amanorn both recognize this as a Cerebric Fungus, an extraterrestrial Plant creature from some planet neither of you are sure the name of. They're a fairly weak species for their planet, but are unnaturally intelligent, canny, and even charismatic to make up for it
Consummate knowledge seekers, they crave any new information or sensation, and have a habit, as you have experienced, of asking seemingly nonsensical questions from anyone they meet, and have been known to give rare esoteric information to the scholars just mad enough to understand their inane ramblings (and the true meaning behind it). It is theorized that this is how they attempt normal communication with other species', but their thought processes are so alien that the true meaning is often lost.
While morally Neutral and generally non-hostile, they DO have a habit of attacking anyone who gives them unsatisfactory answers to their questions, and a reputation for performing bizarre, sometimes cruel experiments on captured beings. It would be safer to say they are not truly neutral, but more operating on a moral scale so outside the norm of most beings that it is simpler to classify them as having no moral leanings at all.
It will happily chat away with you until the stars grow cold and die, but should you anger it (an almost certainty, given how freely it comes up with such "koans" and how specific the answers must be to appease it) it will just as gladly fight to the death just to experience the sensation.
The fungus practically glows with happiness at Jones' response, and BEAMS at Amanorn's returned question.
However, he shoots Darius a glower. His own glower in fact, one of the scathing looks he directed at Zin (from Zin's perspective) when he thought she'd done something wrong. It appears to be displeased that Darius answered the question for him (or at least gave him a hint) without giving it a chance to think first.
If a train travels through space at 3.75^1000 light years per hour, and its wheels are blue, how long does it take to reach the twelfth dimension, and what aspect does it find?
Darius raises a brow at the creatures reaction. " Cute.. " folding his arms within themselves to look at the rest.. to see how long they wished to do this.
"Which is more difficult to ascertain, how long you will question with us, or the answers to your riddles?"
Amanorn questions again, using this as a subtle means to communicate to the others this will go on endlessly.
"It's fire right? I have a sneaking suspicion that it's fire. Probably soon too."
Besides the one you've already experienced (its Unsettling Appearance) it has a "Star-Shriek" that scrambles the brain of the listener, nauseating them.
It would also be a very, very bad idea to try and read this creature's mind. Their Otherworldly Mind is so alien that it can cause backlash triggering a Will save to avoid nonlethal damage, confusion, and failure of the effect.
If a train travels through space at 3.75^1000 light years per hour, and its wheels are blue, how long does it take to reach the twelfth dimension, and what aspect does it find?
"Lessee... Righteous Orcs Yell "Get Big" In Voices."
"So seven colors that we can see - though orcs and dwarves and the like can see s'more in the dark. Blue is the fifth color."
Sledge scratches his head, "I guess it depends on how many colors the observer can see. So for a human, never, 'cause we only see seven, so it either never leaves or has always been gone."
Amanorn smiles keenly, fingering an arrow on his bow, and, considering he never directly approached the thing, from a safe distance nods at Zin's suggestion.
"One more thing...if a fungus burns in a cave...does it make a sound?"
"Sorry guys, but we'd be talking to this thing until you all died of old age and I ended up doing this, anyway."
Darius sighed, " Curses, it asked questions we could have at LEAST found out WHO made this place.. and Why... The Plant was clearly that smart. "
"Yet you didn't do that and only mentioned it after the fact, so really, am I entirely to blame? No, you spent your time complaining. As usual."
Darius seems legitimately peeved, " NO! I patiently waited for it to ANSWER first, now you test my patience. I spend my time making solutions, dont make me create one now. "
The archer rolls his eyes.
"...he said, rather complaining-ly..."
Ogg'ggggggg'gggggggg'ggggggg'gggggggggg'ol (26)
Sledge (25)
Jones (25)
Darius (17)
Amanorn (17)
Zin (8)
Ung'ggg'ol keeens madly, images swirling wildly around him (don't forget to make that DC 19 Will save every turn to avoid the -2 attack rolls).
Ogg'gggg'ol assaults Amanorn's mind with everything he has, half-finished nonsense questions drowning out all other thoughts.
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"You damn fool..." Jones sighs.
He addresses Ogg'ggggggg'gggggggg'ggggggg'gggggggggg'ol, hands raised defensively.
"Wait! We didn't mean to cause you harm. Amanorn is a complete and utter moron who frequently forgets that it's impolite to shoot creatures for no reason. If you let us leave, we won't hurt you any more."
If that doesn't work, he will draw his rapier and circle around the creature, attacking from the opposite side.
Amanorn seems to be drooling, and the light is almost all gone from his eyes.
Darius simply watches, he seems not to want to take part in this fight for now.
Despite the -5 for the language barrier, and the creature's massive Charisma, Jones talks the creature down after translating his request into several nonsense riddles.
Ogg'gggg'ol calms, but makes it clear he wishes you to leave.
Darius looks to the bulb.. " Will you not answer.. but two more questions for us? "
-Posted with Wayfinder
It seems to be entertaining Darius' request, though the questions had better be good.
"You're better at identifying arcane magic Jones, is Amanorm ok? He looks similar to how he did in that awful image, so I assume so."
-Posted with Wayfinder
"Frrrgh? Sszzz..lllppp..."
Amanorn seems just...out of it. Totally confused...and he simply sits fown and scratches himself. The look on his face is pure misery.
"OK, maybe not actually. I'm starting to get a little pissed off now with this thing."
Z's flames begins to sputter and crackle dangerously.
-Posted with Wayfinder
Jones shakes his head sadly.
"It's very clear to me that Amanorn has been Feebleminded. His capacity for communication and reasoning has been completely destroyed, and only the most powerful forms of healing magic can restore him. He can still recognize us as his friends and defend himself in combat, but is capable of little more."
He regards the fungus with a mixture of anger and pity.
"If there's something you want to ask it, I could try to translate it into a suitably cryptic riddle. Otherwise, we may as well destroy it before it can attack anyone else."
Z shakes her head, "... I'm done."
Her flames begin to grow quickly and turn from their usual warm orange to white hot in a moment.
"I'm done with this stupid backwater town, I'm done with fish people, I'm done with all this water, and I'm especially done with dealing with anything who doesn't know their damn place!"
Z's eyes narrow down to slits and she seems close to another break down like the one suffered after the battle with Vrood.
She looks at the plant with hatred and says simply, "... Burn."
And there was fire.
-Posted with Wayfinder
Zin torches it. It still lives.
It keens loudly, clearly well beyond reason at this point. It lashes out again.
Seething black tentacles spring into being around all of you, and attempt to grab onto you all as it flees backwards and upwards, dark wings appearing from its back. Or what passes for one.
Everyone but Sledge is successfully grapple
For some reason, you note that Ogg'gggol appears to be making as much noise as possible as it retreats further into the room, passing several seemingly sealed chambers.