CLOSED | treehaus.

[poleaxed]

WHO: Jone, James Holden, Beth Greene, Gabranth, Margaery Tyrell, Adrasteia, Edgard
WHAT: Haunted hedge maze.
WHEN: Mid-Ferventis
WHERE: Orlais!
NOTES: A way less sexy Labyrinth.

WHAT'S GOING ON: To review, Jone has been asked to sort out a hedge maze on the Gaume estate. It seems to be haunted-- spirits have taken the form of various plants and trees within the huge hedge maze out back. While traveling through the maze, the walls will shift; your characters will be split up into groups, re-split, etc.

While it's possible to beat the shit out of some enchanted plantlife, for whatever reason, you can't hack your way through the walls of the maze. More shrubbery grows in its place no matter what you do. Otherwise, this would be over very quickly. Don't question it. This is a video game, and we should probably just all relax.

HOW DO THE MECHANICS WORK: This is a plot with rolling!

The main focus of the plot will be overcoming riddles and puzzles to reach the end, but you can get clues with rolls. Unlike in Murderhaus, rolls function to investigate the situation, not determine the outcome of actions (IE, I'll give you clues). When you want to roll, put ROLL in the subject of your comment, and bold what your character is investigating. I will reply with a clue, the helpfulness of which will be determined by behind-the-scenes rolls. Likewise, since there is a plant NPC for each scenario, do the same to ask them a question; their helpfulness will be determined by rolls as well.

For example: Bob studies at the strange pattern of pebbles on the ground, etc. Alice asks the enchanted tree, "what the fuck?" and so on.

If you think you've come up with the answer to the riddle, put ANSWER in the subject line, so I know to pop in and NPC spirits' reactions, etc.

(I've purposefully given you guys puzzles and riddles that have multiple potential answers! Likewise, if you come up with something I wasn't expecting but still works, I'll count it as a success. I'm not here to make anyone squirm. Have fun, and if you get bored of a puzzle, do the following...)

If your characters are out of ideas and just want to move on to the next action, put NO ANSWER in your subject line, and feel free to wreck the shit out of some enchanted shrubbery. While your characters can't beat up the walls, decimating any spirit-enchanted topiary NPCs will get them through the conundrum. I won't need to NPC this, because the spirits won't put up much of a fight. Please imagine some sad little Henson-esque 'wahh oh noooo' noises, though.

If you have any questions, hit me up!

After characters have solved a certain amount of puzzles / riddles, I'll open up a new toplevel and link you to it for endgame. Instructions on how that will work will be revealed there.

WHAT DOES MY CHARACTER SEE:

Upon coming up to the maze, the entrance is blocked by a network of vines, all entangled in one central knot. A spectral voice emanates from the maze:

O! Challenger, come forward now,
to give us peace in your solemn vow:
untie this knot and enter as our true friend.

Jone studies the knot before rolling her eyes and slicing it through with her poleaxe. There is a screeching scream from somewhere far off, twisted and inhuman. The cut vines turn vengeful, and quickly pull Jone inside the maze before here is time to react.

Entering the maze, there is no sign of Jone or where she may be. The hedge walls quickly begin to shift, separating the group.

Comments

ENDGAME.

[poleaxed]

TBA.

BETH.

[poleaxed]

Eventually, you reach the maze's heart-- which probably makes it more of a labyrinth. A thing of gnarled wood sits in its center, a tree-like creature. Tangled in its branches is Jone, who seems to be unconscious.

The creature speaks. "A contemplatious creature who upon the labyrinth's steps did walk now visits me intending to speak knowledge. I wonder if in asking I could learn how spirits judged thine eye; for surely like each branch they are my brethren."

[littlemissfutility]

Beth spends a little while trying to find the way back, and then just trying to make herself breathe normally. There are more riddles to solve, while her heartbeat settles back into its usual rhythm, and she kind of sucks at them--everything in her that was ready to solve problems is burnt-up ashes right now. All she really wants is for this to be over.

But Gabranth's warnings still chase her, everything that boils down to if Jone's dead, it'll be your fault, and when she no longer feels like she might barf into one of the hedges, she knows it's at least partly true. Jone's gone, and they need her back.

She's already running toward the huge tree when she realizes consciously what the flash of red in its boughs must mean. Jone's up there somehow, and all they'll need to do is climb up. God, please don't let her be dead. Please don't be dead. Please don't--

Of course, then it talks, and she skids to a halt, a brand-new adrenaline pumping through her veins as she stares up at the thing that has Jone. She'd really thought it was just a tree, not an extra from The Wizard of Oz. Swallowing down a wave of fear, she asks tentatively, "D'you wanna ask them or me?"

[poleaxed]

"My kin have told me all about the trials you faced and braved without fear or reckless violence, courage favor'd."

The tree is clearly aware of the woman in its branches, for it moves carefully to avoid jostling her. A careful eye will spot her twitching slightly, as though fighting off a poor dream. For that, the tree's voice is softer:

"But I wish to know how you'd judge your actions."

[littlemissfutility]

Without fear or reckless violence. She wonders if that's a slight against Jone, the way she cut open the vines at the start. Maybe they'd all have ended up trapped in the creature's branches if they'd done similar.

"I--" Beth swallows, thinking of the way Gabranth stood like he wanted to block out the sun. She didn't come out of that looking great, either, probably. Trying to judge any of it just makes her chest ache with remembered burdens. "I could've done better. But I didn't wanna hurt your garden--we didn't wanna."

[poleaxed]

The tree hrrms at this, branch-fingers scratching its bark-chin. "In truth I find your actions just, though my thoughts must wander as needs must to why you would think so kindly at our hindrance?"

[littlemissfutility]

Which is, at least, easier to answer than everything before, how'd you do? She shrugs. "It's better than fighting you, isn't it?"

GABRANTH.

[poleaxed]

At the maze's heart, its pure center through which all must walk to make their exit, rests a giant tree. Upon Gabranth's entrance, it shifts, and begins to move, awakening into a creature of knowledge.

"Judge, peerless in a battle's press-- much has been made of strength and poise-- now come upon us who judge man's intentions. How did you fare within the maze, a test not of your fighting arm, but honor in the field of common hardship?"

[archademode]

A treant.

Considering the permeating haze of this place, the tangled weave of Mist that he can only assume coils throughout the maze and all its surroundings— as it would within the thicker forests of Ivalice— he cannot claim astonishment. Yet without anyone at his side to pay witness or party to the exchange, his embittered impatience bares teeth with all due sincerity.

“Poorly.” He snaps, glove edged across the pommel of a sheathed blade. Resting for the moment, though wholly ill at ease. As much a warning as bristling fur, or perhaps pinned ears.

“Where is she?”

[poleaxed]

The tree clearly spots the hand on that blade, and frowns-- not difficult with its gnarled bark mouth. "Humility's not often found in those who judge their actions sound. Yet you would rate your conduct very poorly?"

The tree then looks around, considering Gabranth's question. "Women have been often found in places safe for common ground. If you have lost one, how can I yet find her?"

[archademode]

"I was not meant for humekind's frivolities, the point of all your idle games. This much I know already; I have no need of lies."

The rest, however, provokes a vitriolic stare somewhere in the shadow of his helm. The beast is tall, and grand, and imposing in its twisted form: branches and roots and woven bark, a silhouette that might give most pause.

Gabranth, on the other hand, sees only something to be torn down, if need be. And the sands of his patience are running ever thin. "There is only one woman I seek. The one you took, at the very start of this farce. Does it amuse you, weaving chaos like cloth?"

The answer is unimportant. Bordering on rhetorical.

"Return her to me, and no blood shall be shed upon this ground."

[poleaxed]

The tree considers this, and if its gnarled face can express worry, it does. Certainly, the leaves on its branches turn a shade of autumnal yellow-green; the effect immediately transfers to the plant-life around them, walls turning that same color.

It is also a similar shade to Jone's own eyes.

"Of your ill temper I've been warned, but this new challenge I must scorn, for you know you're the only one here with blood?"

[archademode]

Discomforted. Disquieted. The change in scenery incenses something in him, as do the words that accompany it. He focuses only on one part:

"Warned. By whom."

BETH & EDGARD (& JONE).

[poleaxed]

It's been a few hours. The tree looms over Beth and Jone as they talk and try to decide what to do. They sit in a large clearing at the heart of the maze, in what was clearly once a stone walking garden. Mossy statues of indeterminate forms flank them, and a pebble path is not completely overgrown.

Jone looks up when she sees Edgard find his way into the clearing. "Oi! Took you long enough!" But she's smiling, clearly happy to see him.

[muckspout]

"Jone!" He runs over to her. "Riddles." He says in explanation, shakes his head and spits on the ground.

He turns to Beth, nodding at her too. "Everyone alright? Did this" He gestures to the tree. "ask any questions?"

Edgard rolls his eyes, he's finding himself a little impatient.

i'm sorry, i lost track of this.

[littlemissfutility]

Beth's gone quieter and quieter yet, letting Jone take on most of the brunt of conversation, and Edgard's appearance might not do much to change that. (On the other hand, at least it's not Gabranth. She's pretty sure there'd just be another argument.)

"The tree's nice," she says, without the kind of excitement she'd usually have about a talking tree. "You can talk to it, if you wanna."

[poleaxed]

"Riddles!" Jone replies, her hands up. Edgard has always been an odd sort, but never unintelligible in the slightest. He's just got a different way of thinking. She thinks she knows the shape of it.

"This ain't a riddle tree, though I heard there were those. This here's a useless bloody conversation tree."

The tree, for its part, frowns. "I think with endless years I would, better than some more mortal kith, know the value of good conversation."

[muckspout]

Edgard looks at the tree with his eyebrows raised, thoroughly unimpressed. This tree seems too fancy for him.

"Are you certain you're not a riddle tree?"

He looks at the other two.

"So what? We're stuck here?"

He shrugs and sits on the ground.

"Could be worse. Least we have each other's company."

He looks up at the tree, "Got any fruit?"

[poleaxed]

Jone shrugs back. "I think he's the king tree."

The tree retorts, "we have no hierarchy here, just trust and age we do revere, in such a place as this with time well counted."

Jone rolls her eyes. "Anyroad, I've been trying to convince the bastard to bloody leave so we don't have to burn the lot of them down."

HOLDEN AND / OR MARGAERY.

[poleaxed]

Within every labyrinth, there is a heart. Not the center of the puzzle, not its end, but the place one must walk to exit. The heart of this labyrinth is an old stone garden, moss-covered with age. An ancient tree stands at its worn and broken gate, speaking to Jone.

"Just- go. We'll burn you down if you don't."

The tree answers, "I worry not of pain and death, for such things never entered yet the mind of creatures born without flesh's feeling."

Jone rolls her eyes. "Oh, for Maker's sake."

[acreage]

"Were you arguing with the trees this whole time?"

He asks Jone, bemused. He's had the chance to get re-dressed, mostly, but his shirt is still in his hands as he makes his way into the clearing.

[poleaxed]

Jone turns around to greet him, pleased by that familiar voice, only to become briefly distracted. Andraste almighty, but it has been too long. She rubs at her eyes. "Fuck, you almost blinded me with those. Light bounces right off. Like snow on a sunny day, it is."

The tree peers at Holden. "Arguing? Surely not I. A discussion safe in logic's tie, for otherwise what purpose is there speaking?"

[acreage]

"Blame the trees," he says, cuts a sidelong glance at Treebeard the latest spirit around here.

To whom he adds, dubiously: "Why speak when you can trap people in a maze?"

[poleaxed]

The tree answers back, "what better way to test the will of trespassers, unknown still how they react to tests of wit and valor?"

Jone ignores it. "I'm trying to convince 'em to leave."

[acreage]

Well, he pauses to put his shirt back on as he considers that. And after that's done, he turns to the tree thoughtfully.

"Why don't you want to leave?"