”I don’t think finding the Egg would be this easy,” Zathra says, looking askance at the lumpy material in the cradle. ”Kinda looks like clay. Sparkly clay.”
Clancy nods, but he is unsure of exactly what he is supposed to do. The cleric grasps the holy symbol of Justicia in his left hand and holds forth his right hand, summoning his divine magic and then touching the sparkling lump of pure creation.
The divine clay is warm and feels potent, even wholesome to the touch. Clancy feels a gentle urging to shape the clay into something...
"Do you think that is the Egg"?
Roscoe begins to walk about the area taking large, exaggerated steps imitating a much larger creature.
"I asked myself the same question." Mister wonderful says.
...Me too. I asked the same question. Actually my question was, I wonder if the egg is tasty. I mean, it should be real tasty...
Clancy glances at Mister Wanderful, not quite reading Artemis' thoughts, but landing in the same general area none the less. "It wants me to... shape into something. A footprint? You know, like the voice said? Or maybe the egg?" He asks the others as he holds the warm clay.
The cleric idly begins to shape the clay into a footprint, going with his gut reaction - though he takes his time in doing so and is open to other suggestions (except from Mister Wanderful...)
"The Gods are the ones who created mankind, elf-kind, and all the animal species Clancy," Mirinde raises an eyebrow, "Perhaps you should try emulating them."
"Maybe you should create a creature more akin to your personality. Except I'm not sure that you can create a creature which is one hundred percent ass." quips the elf.
Clancy pauses in his work, then glances up at Mirinde. "I... I'm not even sure where to begin emulating them, Mirinde. Save for walking in their footsteps. It's about the only thing I can think of." The cleric ignores Mister Wanderful's snarky comment as he continues crafting the footprint with the warm clay and then pauses, suddenly struck by a thought. "Or... a door? A way out of this place?" He asks the others, his eyes on the elf who told him to emulate the gods. Perhaps Mirande is correct, he was being too literal in his thinking. If he could create door, they might be able to depart this seemingly infinite void.
Unless there are other suggestions, he changes tack, crafting a somewhat crude door so that they might create a way out of this void. "If this works, I suggest we concentrate on the room we just left when we open the door. Choose another."
Without any better guidance, Clancy shapes the clay into the form of a door. Unfortunately, once he finishes, the clay simply melts in his hands, falling to the floor. A moment later, a spark of life ripples through the improperly fashioned primordial clay, and it begins to rise up into a slime monster that prepares to attack!
Clancy winces as the stuff slides from his hands like jelly, and suddenly a slimy creature rises up from the mess! Still holding onto his holy symbol, Clancy attempts to bring Justicia's blessing to bolster both himself, and perhaps his allies.
= heavenly host sings softly while blessing present
In similar fashion to when his divine magic revealed the presence of evil, a heavenly host begins to sing as Clancy readies his shield before preparing to draw forth his warhammer that might have been crafted of obsidian. It seems wrong somehow, but the cleric of Justicia can only pray that she will understand his reasons for engaging in this endeavor. At least the heavenly chorus is softly singing this time, he thinks idly as an aura of strength and resolve emanates from his body, encompassing those nearby.
"Because that's what gods are known for, crafting doors." Says Mister Wanderful, as he attacks. Though He's not sure if an arrow will wound it.
"I didn't hear you come up with anything better." Clancy snarls as he takes a defensive stance before the slime monster. "Or that creepy little bug you keep talking to, for that matter."
Wanderful's arrow hits the slime, but it doesn't seem to harm the thing much!
"At the beginning of Time, the gods brought LIFE to the world. Behold the last piece of divine matter from which the Eternals wrought their creation." Mister Wanderful repeats calmly with a deep and lisping voice. "The two elves said create a beasty. You tried being a divine carpenter. How silly. A God would never be a carpenter."
"Well next time I'll try to craft a dragon chewing on a loud-mouth elf! Will that satisfy you? Hey... nice shot." And indeed it was, but the creature doesn't seem terribly affected. "I'd suggest something heavy and blunt," he calls out to the others as he starts to go for his obsidian warhammer. "...basically the opposite of Mister Wanderful's pointed barbs." He finishes, flashing the elf a grin, thinking he'd appreciate the double meaning. Or not. It was so hard to tell with Chaotic beings...
Mirinde rolls here eyes at Clancy, even as she draws and fires one of her arrows at the slime creature!
By the Lady's Might...Must I draw pictures of what the divine beings are known for? Perhaps you should commune for wisdom...should we survive this!
;
"Hey, give him a break! He's trying his best!" Zathra says to Mister Wanderful, coming to Clancy's defense. "I thought it was a very good door!"
The warrior reverses her grip on her polearm, wielding it like a staff, as she moves in to attack the slime.
Zathra's mighty blow splatters the slime monster! It collapses into a quivering heap before falling still.
With its defeat, another portion of clay appears in the cradle. The amount is slightly less than previously present, though. It would appear that you have a limited number of attempts remaining to pass the trial.
Artemis' eyes go wide at the massive strike landed by Zathra - "Very impressive" - he nodded in approval
Roscoe pulls forth both axes and screams a primal war cry charging the blob... which peters off to a yawn as he sees the creature dismissed before his arrival.
"Nice Shot"?
He then rubs his chin in thought... aloud.
"Perhaps this brings forth the old question of which comes first the Chicken or the egg. Since the container is kind of a cradle maybe we need to fill the cradle with a new beginning. The question is do we make it an Egg or a baby"?
He then shrugs... "But what do I know"?
Clancy grins at Zathra. "Well done!" She may not have begun her life as a warrior, but neither had he begun his as a cleric. It seemed that the strange forces of Law and Chaos made their plans and all they could do was do their best to keep up. He listens to Roscoe and nods thoughtfully. "It makes sense, and we ARE here for an Egg, after all. As to a baby... a baby what, is the question. It seems as though the clay doesn't want to be molded into something that isn't correct, so if we chose a chick and it wanted a human - or an elf - then we're left with the same slime monster trying to kill us all and a little less clay to mold next time if we manage to survive."
The cleric shakes his head as he comes to his own uncertain decision. "The egg feels right. It's a cradle after all, as you pointed out. And it's why we're here. For all we know we have to create this Yokeless Egg ourselves. In fact..." He pauses then, lost in thought - something he didn't have to do very often as a simple chicken farmer. "... it could very well be that we create the Yokeless Egg right here in this room, and then carry it through each of the others, in turn to come up with artifact itself! 'Creation. Construction. Enlightenment. Sacrifice. Judgment.' Those are the five doors, or that's what they were named, anyway. As we pass through each, maybe we pass through a sort of... forge, like turning a simple ingot of ore into a finely crafted warhammer. Through each stage of life, so to speak. After all, we are looking for the Yokeless Egg. If the life within has gone through its stages, it comes out the other side as an empty shell. Yokeless."
Clancy finishes his thoughts and looks to the others to share their own - or in the case of Mister Wanderful, to tear down his own - he thinks with a wry smile playing at the corner of his mouth.
Mirninde nods in approval at the priests's reasoning. "Well thought out and I believe that is the path we must follow."
“At the beginning of Time, the gods brought life to the world. Behold the last piece of divine matter from which the Eternals wrought their creation. Embrace your inner divine spark and walk in the footsteps of the gods, or await the end of their creation within these walls."
"It could all be about the creation of life, no?" - Artemis pondered for the first time - 'Embrace your inner divine spark, and walk in the footsteps of the gods' - kinda sounds like we should play God? So perhaps sculpt a life form from 'the last piece of divine matter from which the Eternals wrought their creation'? Maybe sculpt a baby? Or a man? Any living creature?" - he shrugs.
"Embrace your inner divine spark and walk in the footsteps of the gods, or await the end of their creation within these walls." He says with lisping authority. "Your mommie says I should give you a break, but...
"...Please, please, please smack him in the head. knock some sense into him..."
"...We will die in here if you don't make something that the room approves of." He says exhaustively.
"Do you or anybody here know what a yolkless egg is. Does it have a shell like a chicken? What color is it? Or is it more like a gelatinous frog egg. Or is it something more metaphorical or spiritual? Just create a beastie with imaginary detail." Spurts the Wand man.
Clancy nods at Artemis' reasoning, ignoring Mister Wanderful's outburst - for he can barely follow the elf's train of thought. "It could very well be so Artemis, though honestly crafting a person from that clay would likely require the work of a master, which I am not. An egg, however, would be simple to make. I can see both sides of the coin in this, but if we are to come out the other side with a Yokeless Egg, then starting with a sculpted egg feels right." He shakes his head, then finally shrugs. "Chicken or the egg. It seems we have been given at least a bit of leeway in coming up with the answer. If we fail again, we should be able to try a third time, I believe. Beyond that..."
Again the small, uncertain shrug as he picks up the clay once more, idly molding it in one hand. "What say you all? Egg? Or shall I try to create a babe of some kind? Mirinde and I are leaning toward an egg, Artemis believes that I should try to sculpt a creature of some kind, perhaps a man - though I might be better at trying a baby chick." He smiles ruefully at this thought. "Zathra? Roscoe? Mister Wanderful? Do you or your bug have an opinion on this beyond the fact we'll all die here if we don't come up with something? I believe that's a certainty that we are all very aware of. As to the details you mention, I don't think this bit of clay - or whatever it is - will allow me many options as far as color or what kind of shell it might have. A simple oval, I should think. It might well be that it is the intent of the creator that signifies what it is. If I believe the oval shape to be an egg, then it is."
Zathra shrugs. "I don't know. An egg seems pretty easy to make. Easier than a man, I'd wager."
Knowing he'll be ignored by the intellectually deficient priest, He quips "You've already decided. Why do you keep asking us only to ignore what we say, again?"
Clancy closes his eyes and counts slowly to ten. He did the same when dealing with his younger brothers and sisters long ago on numerous occasions. He turns to Mister Wanderful. "I've decided nothing, which is why I've asked for others to speak on their thoughts. In all honesty, I confess that I either cannot comprehend what it is you're saying or you've said exactly nothing with regard to how this clay should be shaped beyond 'a beastie with imaginary detail'. Perhaps you could be more specific? In any case, I'll put that in the camp of 'baby', so we now have three for egg and two for a tiny creature of some kind. So egg it is. If this doesn't work, I'll let you craft your little beastie."
He scowls at the elf for a moment longer, then makes quick work of crafting an egg, focusing his thoughts on the object and willing it to be a creation of life as he places it back in the cradle. Unless, of course, it dissolves into slime again...
Clancy shapes the clay into an egg. As he places it inside the cradle, it glows brightly as it transforms into an actual egg! Clancy's creation ascends into the column of light, then you find yourselves whisked back to the entry chamber.
A shimmering staircase begins to manifest in the room. It reaches up about one-fifth of the way up to the sea of celestial light high above.
The door marked "Creation" will no longer open, but four doors remain...
"Let's hope that the room is as unimaginative as you are." He says with a smile.
Clancy suppresses a sigh of relief as the column of light seems to ascend into... whatever lies above this vast chamber. In the next instant, finding he and the others are once again in the main entry room - with a shimmering staircase beginning to manifest now - the cleric glances around at the other rooms, reading the names aloud for the others. He jerks a thumb at one. "Construction? Not sure if it matters which one we open next, but it makes sense in a way."
Mirinde shoots Mister Wanderful an annoyed glance here before she stows her bow again. "Since we must traverse each of these doors here to pass through the staircase then the next door would be the logical choice...we are, after all, in a plane dedicated to Law, are we not?"
"Ugg." Mister Wanderful grunts. "Five doors. We solve one and go up a fifth of the stairs. Being lawful doesn't make them complex."
"...Yeah an egg is a solution? I mean its a mishappen circle. The designer musta been moronical with a boomin' deep voice...
"Please, just pick a door." The elf says.
"Somebody woke up on the wrong side of his scorpion this morning..." Clancy grumbles as he takes the door handle in one hand, his shield held with his left, and opens the door labeled 'Construction'.
A moment of disorientation afflicts you, and then you find yourself in a massive space defined by walls of solid iron and burnished rivets. The iron floor beneath you bears no rust nor wear. The chamber, lit by a glow from sources unseen, measures nearly 300’ long and 150’ wide. Midway across the room, a 100’ long gap bisects the chamber. Wisps of clouds rise from the hole in the floor. On the far side of the chamber is another doorway, identical to the one that brought you here.
Standing between you and the break in the floor are six delicate stands fashioned from crystal. Atop each is a fluted glass of liquid. The liquids are, in order from left to right, tangerine, azure, gold, plum, crimson, and emerald.
Mister Wanderful shrugs and says "Yes, Yes. I find this whole dimension quite unnerving. My apologies to those who took offence."
The elf wanders to the emerald glass and examines it. "What, do we drink these? Do we toss them on the ground? Are we to build a bridge with these?"
Perhaps the colors of these match the colors of the rainbow. Perhaps we should rearrange them first before trying to drink them. Let's see we've got ... Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple... Hey we're missing one".
Clancy looks a bit startled as the elf and Roscoe speak their thoughts. "Hey no, I think you're onto it, there - both of you. We're missing one? I think this is all of them... in the order you said, I think... How strange, I've seen many rainbows in my life, but never really thought about the order of the colors until now. Still, what do we do with them? Drink them in order like Mister Wanderful said? And starting from the top color or the bottom? Or maybe we do toss them, but out into the gap there to make a bridge like you said?" He glances at the elf, a sort of bright wonder on his face at the idea. "I've heard stories about walking across a rainbow to find the gnome's gold at the far end. Just a kid's fable, though."
"The colors of the rainbow are indeed represented by the bottles," Mirinde nods in agreement, "but 'tis true we are missing one. Perhaps the egg we gathered here fits into the puzzle in some way?"
"Why don't we try just moving them into the correct order first and see what happens".
"Why don't we try just moving them into the correct order first and see what happens".
"Forewords and backwards" Mister Wanderful adds.
Arranging the vials in either order doesn’t seem to produce any effects.
Clancy sees the rearranging has no effect. "So, either we drink them, or toss them into the sky and hope for a rainbow bridge. Maybe left to right, starting with red, then orange, then yellow, green, blue and purple in that order as Roscoe said - with the purple band on the right side of the gap? We could start by pouring out the red liquid cautiously on the far left side of the gap - you know, see what it does as it hits the empty air. Maybe it'll sort of spread out? The name of this room IS 'Construction', after all. Making a rainbow bridge sounds about right to me."
Any attempt to pour the liquid out of the vials ends in failure. The liquid simply stays in place, even defying gravity if you turn the vials upside down. However, if you hold it near your mouth, it starts to move. It looks like you’re supposed to drink the liquids.
Mirinde snaps her fingers as the realization the liquids needs to be drank in order to proceed. "There are six of us here, and six bottles here. We should each consume one bottle...I do not believe it matters which color we choose, however."
Clancy nods and picks up the vial of green liquid. "Well then, all at the same time? Maybe we should each of us stand next to one another, in the same order as the colors of the rainbow?" He waits until everyone has a vial, just as Mirinde suggested - and perhaps assorted by the color of the liquid they're about to drink. Once everyone is set, Clancy raises his vial briefly. "Cheers!" He calls out jovially, though there is a glimmer of doubt in his eyes as he drinks the green liquid down. What exactly would it do to him?