The Eleventh Trial: Senna

[hot_mess_express]

[As you pass through the doors of the bar, your vision blacks out. You find yourself in a void, unable to see even your own hands. For a moment, all is silent. Then, out of the murky dark shines a pair of brilliant sky blue, cat-slit eyes. Below them, a sharp, fanged smile.]

Looks like it's my turn, now.

Your mission today is to master a maze. Every room has a riddle: give it the right answer, and you get a point. Mess it up or wait too long, and you lose a point. Either way you can move on, but screw-ups have to pay a toll.

I don't really expect anything from you, but let's see if you can prove me wrong. Get as many points as you can before you reach the exit, and maybe I'll buy you a drink.

[The cat's face disappears, and the void recedes...]

Comments

INSTRUCTIONS

[hot_mess_express]

Characters find the rules for this game appear in their mind. They are as follows:

- Each room of the maze has a puzzle. You have 30 minutes to enter a solution or give up. The solution must be agreed on by everyone but submitted by one person. Results are given as soon as you've submitted your answer, so you may move on before the 30 minutes are up.

- If you enter the right solution, the doors will unlock and you can choose in which direction to proceed. Unlocking successfully causes the team to gain one point.

- If you enter the wrong solution, give up, or exceed your time limit, the person submitting the answer will receive a penalty before the door unlocks. You can choose in which direction to proceed, but the team will lose one point.

- Once you've gone through a door, it becomes permanently locked. You cannot go backwards, only forwards.

- If you reach the end room, you may not go back into the maze. You're done and must wait for endgame.

- The total game run time is 3 hours. You should aim to be in the end room with as many points as possible by that time. If you never reach the end, the whole team takes a penalty and you lose 5 points.

- The 3 teams with the highest score at the end of 3 hours win.

THE CAT

[hot_mess_express]

[As you go through the rooms, you'll see a black cat in each one, lounging and watching you with bright blue eyes. You may talk to the cat here!]

START

[hot_mess_express]

[You begin in a walled-in garden -- a lush green lawn spreads across the ground, soft beneath your feet. Scattered about are flower beds, with rosebushes in various colours. In the center is a fountain, with cool water that’s clear and fresh and perfectly drinkable. The room is lit from above by a bright but distant artificial sun.

There are three doors leading North: Left, Right, and Center. They are featureless, with no visible way to open them. Near them is a stone pedestal.]

PUZZLE

[hot_mess_express]

[Upon examining the pedestal, you find three dials with three settings, marked with a coloured dot: red, yellow, and white. Above each one is a number: 12, 18, and 23. You must select a colour for each number.

In this thread, you may discuss solutions or examine the room. Please ping Cleo on discord if your characters are examining something or you have a question.]

SOLUTION

[hot_mess_express]

[Submit your answer here. Remember, whichever character submits is the one who'll receive the penalty if you're wrong.]

THE DOG

[desirestruth]

[She's not talking to him but she has this deep instinctual urge to gekker at him.

bark. yip. grr.

She's trying to behave, we swear.]

[desirestruth]

...A number puzzle, is it...?

[Just. Staring at the pedestal. Please envision white-woman-with-math but a jackal.

After a moment she's going to start going around the room to see what things are red, yellow and white!]

[catcophonous]

[nya]

[catcophonous]

[The flowerbeds are lush, roses in full bloom in three colours: red, yellow, and white. All are fragrant and beautiful.]

[unrepairable]

[ ... staring at the flowers. what is going on. what is this. where. um.

should... should he try to be helpful here. ]

Maybe it's less to do with the numbers themselves and more to do with what they represent? Like a pun... or ... a pattern?

[he's at a loss here]

[desirestruth]

Count the colors of the roses. Oftentimes, riddles actually have fairly simple solutions, they just try to obfuscate how to get there.

[desirestruth]

Oh, what lovely colors! But I won't cut someone else's roses...perhaps I'll ask for seeds after.

[She does notice the colors, tho. GUESS IT'S TIME TO COUNT FLOWERS.]

[catcophonous]

[Upon counting, you’ll find there are 18 red roses, 23 yellow roses, and 12 white roses.]

[desirestruth]

[Okay but she's going to coo about how pretty they are first before telling Kashuu.]

[unrepairable]

... is it really that simple?

[ she's already counting though. what a hard worker.... ]

They seem to match up at least. [ will anything mess up if he picks any of the flowers? the red ones are nice... ]

[desirestruth]

I have some roses growing in the garden, but none of them are this vibrant in color...I'd take some of the red ones back if I could.

[Reds are so good? Reds are good!!!]

The numbers match, too...

[unrepairable]

[ red IS good. ]

Let's take them then, shall we? If we uproot them properly we may be able to plant them in your garden.

[ Priorities. ]

It seems as though you were right about how simple this puzzle was in the end. I'm relieved. I was worried this might be hard.

[desirestruth]

We should submit our answers before we move them, in case that changes the count.

[Flowers are good. it's like she's a tiny whitehard momtsutada.]

I suspect they'll grow more difficult as we progress. But something like this isn't so bad.

[desirestruth]

18 red, 23 yellow, and 12 white.

[hot_mess_express]

[You turn the dials, and the numbers glow for a moment. There’s a click -- you've successfully opened the doors. But you can only choose one, so proceed carefully.]

[unrepairable]

Yes, alright. [ he'll wait for her to do that then.

wait how are they going to dig them out... with their hands? ]

Even if the puzzles get harder, as long as we work together I'm sure we can succeed. [ positive. thinking. if nothing else at least he feels like he's progressing somewhat. a nice feeling. ]

Do you have a spade?

[desirestruth]

Center.

[desirestruth]

No, but--

[She reaches out after the doors unlock, and gently breaks some flowers off, with as much stem as possible.]

If you take cuttings off rose stems and plant them in the ground, they'll grow from the stems.

ROOM B

[hot_mess_express]

[You enter a dim room with walls and floor and ceiling made of a flat black stone with a smooth matte finish. It’s empty, aside from a statue of a nymph holding a mirror, a small bright light shining down upon it, warm and golden like a sunbeam. There is no pedestal -- instead near the North ceiling there are two stone rings hanging down on chains. One is decorated with sun rays, one has a rim engraved with stars.

There are four doors here: North, South, East, and West. The South door locks behind you, and cannot be unlocked. You can only move forward.]

PUZZLE

[hot_mess_express]

[The nymph holds her mirror slightly downward, facing the floor. Inspection proves that the mirror can be tilted up or down, as far back as parallel to the ceiling, and side to side.]