Singular Part 8
When last we left our heroes, they had found another golden cat.
They also had figured out that the numbers kept escalating and how to pen the majority of the doors in this room. Something is still missing from the picture, aws this latest cat isn't doing anything new.
Melora puts her shotgun on her shoulder and hmms at the doors. "I wonder. Maybe the cat has something to do with the multiples of threes."
The golden cat turns a small circle and then sits down. Exepctantly waiting.
You still have several doors in this room as well as gates with chests behind them.
Serraphine looks about between them all and then tries to work through the progression around her. A scratch of her chin and she moves toward the next one in the order she had worked out last time, "Let's try and open all the right boxes first." She fishes around for a cookie in her pouch on the way to the next one.
Tirr glances from one person to the next... "I'm so lost it's frightening, but lead on, I shall try to help wherever i can.." She says and rubs at the back of her neck...
One thing dwarves can definitely do is help others open gates....and that's what Melora does.....
Serraphine starts meandering along and crunches down on her Acleese made confection as she starts counting them off with a nod of her head. Her eyes look along it, not fully understanding the numbers but understanding the general progression and the way they change. She stops in front of the next one she's figured is in the order... 128 it looks like. Stuffing the cookie in her mouth she starts working to lift this gate. "Bfff shifteen." she says around the cookie.
Melora says, "those cookies are going to cause you to choke, missy. Stop hammering them back like it's an addiction." She says helping her with the next gate."
So!
As each portcullis is lifted, you find the cheset behind contains a similar golden cat. Every one moseys over to the other in due time. Soon, they're...playing, batting each other, tussling and ot herwise behaving like normal cats that aren't made out of magic and gold.
Finally, as the sixth portcullis is exhaustively lifted, tge sixth cat darts out and joins hte otehrs. The metal they are made of begins to... flow. They lose their shape, merging instead into a single, larger cat that begins to move to each actual door in the room, sniffing at it once.
Granit has arrived.
Melora says, "That is......weird." She grumble as she watches the cats become one. "Keep an eye on the cat."
Tirr blinks and stares at the cats... "And here I am without a giant ball of yarn..." She mutters quietly, the tall Sith studying the cats most curiously..
Granit steps back, watching the cat carefully. He smiles to himself, then watches the consideration of the doors.
"The day I choke on a cookie, is the day I no longer want to live." Serraphine rebuttles after she finishes her latest of those sweet-sweet confections. She had to get her fix after all, brain food. She turns to watch the cats though, and then they all join together and she raises an eyebrow to Melora. "Of /all/ the things that happen. That's the part that you find weird? I'm shocked." She's using a flat tone, a cross of her arms as she waits for the cat. She figures it'll do /something/.
Finally, the cat has sniffed under each door and it st ops and starts licking itself.
Unfortuantely, it's made of metal, so the sound is more like SCREECH SCREECH SCREECH.
It's painful on the ears. Then it leaps up on to the door handle of the furthest out of the doors and sits there. Waiting.
Melora says, "No. What I really find weird is that I haven't shot you in the foot yet.....and you haven't choked on a cookie."
Melora says, "hmmm." She says following the cat. Except....she moves a bit slower this time."
"I'm not surprised." Serraphine says back to Melora, "To either. You just need a better sense of humor." A sage nod, very sage, because she's an Arvek. Everyone knows Arvek are very sage. And she begins to walk toward the cat, calling out in advance, "Two hundred and fifty six!"
Granit winces, stepping back from the noise. The noise! His pointed ears! Though he does consider the door.
Tirr flails her arms briefly and cups them over ear-holes "That's painful!!!" She calls out, then blinks "I think the cat's found something!!!" she says and makes her way toward the cat-pointed out doornob and well she attempts to open it..
"You get louder stuff in the mines." Melora says before she levels her shotgun at the door......waiting for Tirr to open it.
Announcement: Beaglefinder shouts, "Happy International Discounted Chocolate Day, everyone! :D"
Announcement: Beaglefinder shouts, "Happy International Discounted Chocolate Day, everyone! :D"
THE DOOR OPENS.
...well, then.
Inside you walk into this room, which has no other doors!
That's the good news. You're also not murdered for walking in.
Mind you, this is just a logic puzzle put to you by a particular wizard so the chances of murder was always low, but one never knows with wizards.
Instead of doors, there are sections of floor, 64 of them in total, spaced out evenly. Every section has a handle in the middle of it, looking lke itws designed to pull something up out of the ground. The way the floor is sectioned indicates this ought to be possible.
Granit closes his eyes, the studies the handles, looking for clues. There has usually been something thus far.
Melora puts her shotgun on her shoulder. "dunno why my 'shoot at things' sense keeps going off. Logic puzzles and the like. Granted. Logic isn't my strong point." She then rubs her chin.
"Just try not to shoot yourself when those senses start going haywire again." Serraphine says as she looks around. Hm. She'll starts looking at the doors to see if there's anything number-like again, or other such identifying marks.
Melora says, "keep talking smart guy. You'll choke on a cookie yet."
The rather large, now, cat follows you in. Then it sits down at the doorway and waits. watching.
"Considering I'm not a guy I would find that pretty hard." Serraphine looks over toward Melora.
Melora is too busy counting the sections of floor to respond to Serraphine.
GAME: Serraphine rolls Perception: (8)+4: 12
GAME: Granit rolls perception: (8)+18: 26
GAME: Melora rolls perception: (20)+10: 30
The good news: There's no immediate traps waiting to murder you for stepping in the wrong palce!
The bad news: there's no distinguishing marks. Theese are all exact duplicates here. If there's a clue, it's not in the surface like it has been previously. It must be something else, then. ALso, these tiles MAY be trapped, but it might be that the trap is below the surface of the floor and you simply can not see it at the moment.
Melora rubs face as she looks at them all. "ugh. The last one was done with larger numbers. So now there's 64 positions here...."
GAME: Tirrynelth rolls perception: (15)+6: 21
GAME: Melora rolls intelligence: (10)+2: 12
Melora takes a bit of a breath and.....actually scratches her head. "Try every fourth square......"
Granit nods once. "Yes." And he moves to the 'top left', counts four in, and pulls.
Serraphine raises an eyebrow, and then shrugs her shoulders, "Okay, and starts off toward the one that Granit is after... then Granit pulls it and she stops a bit short to see what happens.
GAME: Granit rolls strength: (10)+3: 13
GAME: Serraphine rolls Strength: (6)+3: 9
The foutth from the left from where ytou c ame in is pulled up with a series of slooooow grinding clanks. It does not explode.
Once you've pulled it up, you can see that written upon it is a number. In elven.
It is, once again, the number '256'.
It's raised column, of course.
Granit glances over at Melora. "Four over? Or four down?"
Melora says, "Try four down." She stands nearby...."
"Sure, why not?" Serraphine says with a frown, she'll go with Granit to help pull up J16 as well, since they're going 4 straight down from where they are.
GAME: Serraphine rolls Strength: (1)+3: 4 (EPIC FAIL)
GAME: Granit rolls Strength: (11)+3: 14
GAME: Granit rolls strength: (14)+3: 17
SLoooooowly, this time, the column rises.
There's a series od grinding clanks at this one emerges.
512 is written on it, only this time it's inscribed in.. goblin?
GAME: Melora rolls linguistics: Trained Use Only: 0
GAME: Serraphine rolls linguistics: Trained Use Only: 0
GAME: Granit rolls linguistics: Trained Use Only: 0
Hu-u-u-u-urk! Serraphine helps pull it down, and the pillar rises, as she finishes she grabs at her leg, "Ack. Charlie horse. Charlie horse." And she sort of hobbles about in a small circle while commenting, "That says five hundred and twelve."
Granit nods slowly. "So, twice the other one."
Melora says, "yeah. Granit. Number two."
Granit peers into the hole that he just created. A glance back at Melora after. "Which one next?"
Tirr is watching all the stuff curiously "Sooo umm in laymen's terms we're raising these things in orders of 8's andsuch? Or factors of 2 and 4?
GAME: Tirrynelth rolls linguistics: (8)+3: 11
Melora says, "The pattern was four so far, Tirrynelth, but doubling the number threw me off. which is why I want Granit to bring up number 2....""
Granit pulls up Melora's number two next. Or, at least, he tries to.
GAME: Granit rolls strength: (17)+3: 20
GAME: Serraphine rolls Strength: (6)+3: 9
WRitten on THIS one is 128, in Trade.
This one slides out more easily than the others.
GAME: Tirrynelth rolls linguistics: (7)+3: 10
Tirry is looking form place to place, trying to commit to memory the words and the puzzle being put forth... She tilts her head and pulls some paper from her backpack, and begins writing things down, trying to puzzle everything out as she sits down. Her tail begins swishing back and forth now while she studies everything.....
Tirr tilts her head, then ummms "Heey, Soo math is math, no matter the language.. But I'm thinking the language chosen for each number has something to do with things.... So I guess get me a list of languages with each number?"
Granit pauses. "Every stone in the grid? OR every fourth?"
Melora says, "I don't speak too many languages and you seem to be the only linguist here, Tirr.""
"Well, the the third one we pulled up was Trade, the second one Goblin, the first one...Uh-" Serraphine looks between them, "Who read that one? I forget what language it was in. It looks kinda... elf-y though."
Tirr blinks "You mean Sylvan?" She suggests, and stands "Show me?"
GAME: Melora rolls intelligence: (9)+2: 11
GAME: Granit rolls intelligence: (17)+1: 18
GAME: Serraphine rolls Intelligence: (13)+2: 15
GAME: Tirrynelth rolls inteligence: (17)+inteligence: 17
Tirry stares and then hops up, hands going in the air... "I got it, sheer number of characters!!! Not just the numbers but characters should help! So numbers and letters!" She says cheerfully She feels happy, now thinking she's managed to help!
Granit scratches his hair, fingers finally itching at the point of one of his ears. "Right. So the 1280." He points towards that space. Somewhere around there. He lifts his chin. "And maybe we'll find more of them."
Granit pauses. "Should we put back the others?"
Melora says, "I wouldn't."
Granit nods. "Then we won't."
Granit walks over to (I20) and gets ready to pull it. "This one?"
Serraphine frowns and looks at Granit, a shrug, "Maybe. I'm not positive, but if it's 3 characters long and the third position in, I think it stands by that reason?"
Granit nods slowly. "Three, not four? Everything else has been four." He looks around, hand over the handle.
Serraphine frowns and then looks to Granit, a shrug, "Let's try your idea. 1024." A nod of her head down over near where the second one they pulled, "Pretty sure that's it." She moves over toward J17.
Granit moves over, as well, and pulls.
GAME: Granit rolls strength: (14)+3: 17
GAME: Serraphine rolls Strength: (20)+3: 23
GOOD NEWS, EVERYONE!
You don't die!
The third in the top row comes up. This t8ime, the language is Celestial. Yes, they have math in Celestial. How do you think the Gods get anything done? ANyway, a glowing ball forms at the top of the third one from the left on the first column.
So THAT one seems right, so far.
It locks in place, unlike the others you've pulled up so far. When J17 is pulled up, it too locks into place, wit ha total of 1920, with a similar glowing ball.
Tirr blinks and looks from person to person curiously.... She ummms....
Granit frowns for a moment, watching the orbs. He looks at the pattern, and walks towards (K14).
Serraphine gives a gesture toward Granit, "Hey, help me pull this one up. I have a theory." And she gestures toward the one that's three down from where they started (G18), "Bingo?"
GAME: Serraphine rolls Strength: (17)+3: 20
There's a lot of work put into this thing.
You have to spend a fair bit of time doing the math, butsoon more of them are in a pattern, lit up. Oen by one.
Eventually, there's a single bell chiming and the wizard's voice speaks out one more.
"WELL DONE, EVERYONE! You ACTUALLY did it. And here I thoght adventurers wr4e well known for being illogical! You've each won a complimentary golden cat!"
Melora says, "you'd be surprised. I'm not really the logical one though." She says a bit softly. "Usually they're wizards. and I'm not.""
Granit perks up. "A golden cat!" He seems pleased.
"What do you mean we won a complimentary golden cat?" Serraphine calls out with a frown, she crosses her arms over her chest then and sort of glares to where the voice is coming from. And yes, that means if it's coming from all around that she's slowly turning in place. "Either way, if we're done, then send us back to Alexandria you ol' coot!"
Melora says, "that's actually a good idea. We'll still keep the cat, but....please."