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

[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."

[poleaxed]

The tree creeps closer, branches long enough to hide in. "The woman lost, whose name you know, and came here searching high and low. She argued for our patience with your temper."

[archademode]

He does not know if he is soothed or sparked ash by this revelation. He does not know much of anything in this moment, and the fingers resting light across his pommel curl tight in a way that suggests he needs the comfort of it. The assurance that he could, if he so needed, draw it in a second.

In truth, the creature seems passive. Yet that changes little, in the eyes of a Judge Magister (is he still a Judge Magister? has he not already wrestled with the weight of that question for an eternity in the void?).

Jone bartered for patience. Jone was here. Tense dictates she is here no longer. Or...

His footing shifts, his voice cold and flinty. "...why did you take her?"

[poleaxed]

The tree is utterly still for a moment, in the way creatures of flesh cannot be. A robin flies from somewhere far off to land among its branches, hopping toward a nest.

Then, without warning, the creature moved again, speaking slow and precise through a mouth without tongue or teeth. "Her first brush was a keen assault, yet when we met, her fight did halt. She argued that we should expend our patience. It seemed to me she thought more of the cleverness found thereof in others she had chosen to journey with."

[archademode]

Or she wished to stall for time for a reunion. An escape. An opportunity to strike. She is a clever woman beneath all bruntness, and with so little perspective on his own part, he finds himself wishing he had her counsel.

Perhaps Wysteria was right.

"What of the others, do they also remain ensnared for the sake of your amusement?"

[poleaxed]

"My amusement? Maybe so. Though in truth what I wished to know was the nature of a mind born on this strange plane. They walk the maze just as you did, to find what we've shown and hid, and prove themselves the calm creatures she assured us."

It gestures to the maze around them on all sides. The heart is not the exit, after all.

[archademode]

"And the end of your games? What will you do, should you find one that is no friend to you?"

He does not mean himself in this moment, though in truth he easily could make bold such a threat if he was inclined. Instead he remains, that horned helm stilled in observation. No Judge can pass sentence without knowing the weight of the scales they hold.

[poleaxed]

"We have been bid, though not by sword, to leave upon our own accord. Yet curiosity keeps us still tethered."

The tree leans a little closer, observing.

"Those that live in this strangest realm serve ever to fascinate us. We wish to know your mettle and your measure."

[archademode]

"Curiosity will damn you." Gabranth counters, the coldness in his voice serving as it ought. He does not know where this path will lead, but he knows the purpose that bid them come here to begin with, and it was the erasure of the source of this mischief.

If no concensus is reached, no satisfactory removal met by Riftwatch's extended hand, someone else will surely see it through.

"Surrender your hold on this place, return from whence you came."

[poleaxed]

The tree leans closer, curiosity now obvious. It opens its mouth, but verse does not issue forth. Instead, only: "Why?"

[archademode]

"Mankind does not share."

With itself least of all, but it is a cycle that ever repeats. Gabranth would claim himself no different, nor Thedas, nor—

"You trespass now upon their lands and patience is a finite resource. The longer you linger, the more you burn at peril."

[poleaxed]

"You bid us leave under your threat of violence? We shall not leave yet. To hide from threats is hardly a good reason."

[archademode]

Another weight slid into place. Another note made in the forefront of his mind.

"I take it you do not still hold Jone of Denerim in your care." His voice is still and tepid when he speaks; they are beyond the point of presumptive exchanges.

[poleaxed]

This, the tree considers as though it's a very odd thing to say. How can a tree care for a mortal being?

"Now you stand at maze's heart, and further you may still depart, following her if that is what you do wish."

[kantikoy]

Coming around the corner at this point is one (1) elven mage, staff still strapped to her back, curiously looking at both the tree... spirit? and Gabranth. "Hello," she says to both, nodding at Gabranth because it never hurt her to be polite. "Have we found Jone yet?"

[archademode]

“She has taken her leave, it seems, if this spirit is to be believed.”

There is mischief in this maze, and he would be a fool to discard its presence entirely— yet he suspects more and more the creature does not lie to him.

“And so remains the question of what we must do— and what must be done.” The latter stressed for its relevance, his hand lingering still against the pommel of his longsword, though he fears no attack, and turns to face Adrasteia as she approaches.

[poleaxed]

The tree refocuses its attention on Adrasteia. "Little friend of the people, welcome to our humble test, we pose a question: how do you think you did?"

[kantikoy]

"That's good, then." If she was able to leave, that means that Jone's alright.

Not that she's ignoring his other point; it just seems, well, rude to discuss driving spirits out of a place right in front of what (or whom?) is probably the strongest of them. Speaking of, she blinks at the question posed and then gives a little shrug.

"I think I did alright. I helped to figure out the puzzles I encountered with my friends." Even if Gabranth used magic to solve his side of one. "What is earned by passing the test?"

[archademode]

Standing off to one side, that horned helm bores an eyeless stare into the midst of Adrasteia and the creature's conversation.

He was here first. How dare you sidestep his very uncouth topic of choice.

[poleaxed]

"Knowledge," the tree murmurs, "the greatest gift of all. For us and for your lot as well. It is the only thing we trade in freely."

Yeah, the tree is definitely ignoring Gabranth now.

[kantikoy]

"What knowledge were you hoping we'd walk away with, in this case?"

Sorry, Gabranth. But Adrasteia is she's gonna give her best shot to this concept of maybe convincing the spirit to leave as opposed to, say, setting the maze alight and burning them all out.

She does glance in his direction and offer a small smile.