The boar continues to eat the truffles but keeps a wary eye on you.
Well done, sexy. Percy whispers to Hobbes.
"Thanks Gorgeous." Hobbes can't help but grin. He then whistles for the boar to follow. He will use more truffles if need be.
"I don't see how making friends with it helps....it's not like it's going to take it's tusks off and give them to him." Sigrun whispers to Lyosha.
"Neverhome shrugs sheepishly. [b]"We don't have to be friends with boar, I just don't trust Witch things to be so obvious. And boar might do just that when he get back to raven."
Shrugging again he adds "And if raven still wants us to kill boar then we kill boar. Or raven. No loss."
It takes a steady stream of truffles, but Hobbes is able to slowly lead the boar to the twilight raven - who promptly squawks in surprise and alarm. "What are you doing!?!" The bird is quick to compose itself, however. "I mean ... you have not yet answered the riddle."
"Why not? We brought you the answer, little bird."
the tusks yes yes we brought them back to you. It seemed a fine waste of nice boar to kill it when we could just bring all of it. Were the tusks not the answer?
He asked sounding puzzled.... He wasnt puzzled in the least, he merely wanted to see the Ravens' reaction.
"I require the tusks, that is correct. But not still attached to the boar. The creature must die in order for you to be granted access to the rooms beyond."
*cough*liar*cough*
The elf raises an eyebrow and steps forward.
"We've been tasked with preventing what could be the ruin of all worlds, so I'm going to take it that you are lying because you either thought we couldn't do it, shouldn't do it, or no one else HAS done it. So, ally of the Great Crone, which is it?"
The elf crosses his arms and waits for the answer.
Yes yes, indeed bird, you asked a riddle, told us to bring you the answer... the answer has been brought, perhaps next time be more clear in your riddle.
He scowled and showed teeth licking his lips for a moment and eyeing the raven as if suddenly he had a hunger. He was after all feline.
"Really, featherhead? What if we introduced you to the tusks, all personal-like?"
"You are bad riddle weaver bird. Perhaps you shall be good meal for Silence and Noise instead?" Neverhome adds while crossing his arms. Raven or not, he was starting to get impatient with the creature.
"Surprised?" Sigrun asks with a grin."We brought you the tusks. How you interact with them is up to you."
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Percy bounces slightly on the balls of her feet and grins as the party verbally takes the bird apart.
Even if Zses doesn't comment, Crow clicks its tongue (you are not really sure how that is possible.)
"And we even came here to help save your ally. You are making all the talking ravens here seem unreliables."
After a lengthy pause, the raven caws in laughter. "Squawk! To openly defy a servant of Baba Yaga like this requires great strength, indeed. You have passed the first test." It flies to the large tree and touches it with the amulet, causing it to descend into the ground - revealing a portal. The bird then tosses its amulet to you before flying away.
The threshold of this next room is marked with a rune that Zses recognizes as the Iobarian symbol for "Night." Wavering darkness devours everything that lies beyond the threshold. An unnatural chill meets you, stinging the skin of your exposed faces. Thick stone columns and wooden beams are covered in frost and ice flower blossoms, supporting the room's high vaulted ceiling. A faintly glowing blood-red orb dangles from a black frozen iron chain in the center of the room. After a moment, an albino raven wearing an amulet perches atop the orb.
"You have passed the Trial of Strength. Now you must undergo the Trial of Cunning. In the next room, you will find a jumbled projection of a memory. Set it aright, and you will be granted a boon. Show it to me, and I will allow you to proceed."
Smooth. Neverhome thinks as the first Raven squawks and flies off.
"Well at least you're straightforward, instead of trying to come up with riddle." Neverhome muses upon encountering the second Raven.
We passed the Trial of Strength with cunning. What if we passed the Trial of Cunning by strength... Somehow Percy muses as she walks over to the door.
This long, circular corridor is decorated into a twisted rendition of Porcelain Street on a bright winter day, very much like a madwoman's attempt to feign sanity. Bright, cheery building are painted along the walls with ghostly faces screaming from upper windows. Facades jut out into the street at strange angles, nailed crudely to the walls with iron spikes that sometimes also holds small birds or even human appendages. Figures made of porcelain lean out from some of the shops and perform simple, repetitive motions: like animatronics at an amusement park. Some speak in tinny voices, repeating broken phrases over and over.
Five porcelain figures are different: they stand unmoving and whole in the middle of the street, evenly spaced around the ring. The figures are: a Peddler, a Dollmaker, a Child, a Guard, and a Jadwiga. There are numerous garments of different colors strewn throughout the scene.
"Hmm, instructions are straightforward, but actual test is riddle." Neverhome says while looking over the figures. Approaching them Neverhome looks over each individual figure and the loose clothing while also keeping an ear out for the mad voices.
The scattered clothing consists of scarves, tabards, belts, hats, and gloves in a multitude of sizes and styles. Each item is a different shade of brown, white, green, blue, or red. While the five central figures stand silent, the repetitious phrases coming from the other mannequins blur together into a distracting cacophony of sound.
@Ered: you recognize the child as an idealized representation of Yelizaveta - the 13th and previous queen of Irrisen.
@Neverhome: you're able to isolate a pair of repeated phrases.
"I love those gloves! The ones JUST BELOW that ugly green thing."
"There's only ONE THING UNDER that guy's tabard. If you know what I mean...."
"It's the previous queen." Ered states in shock, pointing at the child.
"The voices of room say guard has Tabard." Neverhome says while looking through the clothes for a tabard, and whatever the "ugly green thing" might be while also looking for anything that might look good on himself and the others.
@Percy: the Jadwiga is missing her belt.
Percy find the belt and straps it on. Let's see if completing their outfits does anything!
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Wake up...wake up...wake up Vashti...it was a memory and a dream...not a prophesy...wake up..
Opening her eyes, Vashti regains some of her senses, a small bit of her composer.
Looking up at the powerful women carrying her.
You can set me down Red, I am...able to move forward...
Quickly, accessing the area and challenge, she rounds up the fragmented bits of her mind, then sets her will to work.
Skill checks,
Before entering the room, Zses almost collapses near the threshold, holding himself on his feet by leaning on the wall. Unmoving, the witch stares at the dark, ice blossoms on the wooden beams, his breath growing short. As he fells as if he was running away from something, even if he was perfectly still, a wave of dread fills the witch: barely choking a scream, Zses jerks his head behind him, as if looking for some unseen pursuer, but sees no one. Slowly getting back on his feet, the witch follows the other into Porcelain street...
"Really nice place they have here..." Zses chuckles grimly, moving closer to the five central statues. He concentrates to see if any unusual magic auras were coming from them.
Crow, on the other hand, tries to focus to hear any other snippets from the cacophony of voices.
@Vashti: hidden among the dollmaker's Brown clothing is a symbol of Milani.
@Zses: you detect powerful magic throughout the area, but it's feels fragile and incomplete.
@Crow: You're able to pick out another repeated sentence. "That brown fur has got to be so soft! A pity that hat's RIGHT ABOVE it, though. I can't stop looking at it."
Stay here mr. Pig.
Silence suggested to their tusky companion as he followed the others into the new room. He wasnt going to really eat talking crows...everyone knew you didnt eat things that could speak to you that was just barbaric and he was a samurai.
He tilted his head up at the puzzle frowning as the voices babbled and the others tried dressing them up.
@Silence: there's so much going on that its difficult to focus on any one thing. Although several articles of clothing are made of leather. I wonder how it would feel beneath your claws....
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Sigrun studies the scene in silence, calling on all of her experience with puzzles since child hood, searching fr the missing pieces.
@Sigrun: although their outfits are different, both the Jadwiga and the Child share the same blue/red color scheme. You also know that Blue occupies a more important place in Irrisini color hierarchy.
Working together, Zses and Neverhome place clothing on the mannequins. An ugly green hat for the Peddler, brown fur gloves for the Dollmaker, a blue scarf for the Child, a white tabard for the Guard, and a red belt for the Jadwiga. When this is done, a porcelain doll appears in the child's hands. She smiles and hands it to you. The room then dims as the scene fades away.
"Well that was interesting. Whats the doll about?" Allie moves in to get closer to the doll to examine it.
The doll looks very similar to the soulbound doll from the hut in the Border Wood. As you examine it, the albino raven flies into the chamber. Removing its amulet, it gives it to you. "You have completed this trial. One more remains: the Trial of Resilience. Good luck." It then flies away. At the far end of the chamber, a door has appeared, marked with another Iobarian rune. Zses recognizes this as meaning "Dawn."
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Flowering vines drape the walls of this chamber. A winding, pebble-strewn pathway weaves through a magnificent garden of honeysuckle and lilac. A pale warm light fills the room, emanating from a stone-lined pool of water. The purple and orange reflection of the early morning sky glitters upon the pool's surface.
A small amulet-wearing raven flies up from behind a shrub and perches on a rock in the center of the pool. After a few moments, it speaks to you. "You have done well in completing your first two Trials. One yet remains, and it is the most difficult of all: the Trial of Resilience. In the chamber beyond awaits an entity. From that entity, you must learn the location of 'the shard.' You do not need to recover this item - only discover where it lies. Tell me this location, and the Trial will be complete."