MOD PLOT ↠ BEFORE THE GATES | PUZZLE LOG

[faderifting]

WHO: Bastien, Byerly, Cosima, Derrica, Edgard, Ellis, Flint, Gwenaëlle, Josias, Loxley, Marcus, Mobius, Redvers, Sidony, Tiffany, Tony, Viktor
WHAT: Puzzles and sacrifice
WHEN: Mid Kingsway
WHERE: A temple in Arlathan Forest
NOTES: See also OOC post, open log.

The search pays off, after a few weeks, when a team—every team, independently, separated from the others by foliage and time, and unaware they aren't the only ones—stumbles upon a sizable contingent of Venatori and their allies making steady progress toward a ruined temple complex. It's too large a group for any four- or five-person team to combat directly. But they can outrun them. Whether they dash ahead of the enemy unseen or pause first to ambush or delay them, they'll beat them to the ruins. The forest is so densely grown up around and over its remnants that it's impossible to get a sense of the full scale, but something about the size of the walls and doorways arching high overhead, the opulence of the carvings and mosaics even encrusted by millenia of moss, suggests an important site. And there's a feeling, too, a spine-prickling sense of mingled excitement and foreboding, that whispers this must be the place.

That feeling is confirmed by the contents of the mosaics lining the walls, depicting a glowing golden city with a familiar arrangement of spires and towers. Looking at it causes a strangely powerful sense of deja vu until someone puts it together—these same towers now haunt the Fade, their blackened heights always visible, never reachable. The mosaic of the city circles what looks once to have been a great temple hall, perspective sloping to draw the eye to the only other doorway out of this space, an arched portal opposite, gilded to appear as if it's part of the mosaic, as if walking through it might take one through the walls of the golden city itself.

Each team will reach this temple alone and will travel through it alone. As far as they will be able to tell, they are the only ones to have made it here—perhaps the only people to set foot inside it in a thousand years or more—and the combination of time distortion and crystal lapses will make it impossible to determine otherwise. They can send all the messages they like while inside the complex, but will receive no replies until it's all over. As far as they know, they are the only people with this chance to investigate by far the most promising site Riftwatch has found in the forest. The enemy is going to arrive soon to take whatever is here, and if they leave here now who knows how long it might take to find it again.

Once they're inside, their passage through the temple will follow a linear path, with no opportunities to branch off or divide their party. There is a single route to follow, and the walls are still high and sheer and thick enough to stop them going over or under or through. Each room will present a new trial, a puzzle to be solved, feats of strength and cunning and bravery to be accomplished before the way forward is revealed. If they take the time to clear away some of the vines and study the statues and reliefs, they'll find that each room is dedicated to one or more of the Elvhen gods, which may provide clues if they know their pantheon.

Comments

[elegiaque]

For her sins, Gwenaëlle has been obliged to trudge through a number of elvhen ruins — mostly temples — just once she'd like to trudge through the ruin of someone's extremely normal house — and when Loxley says it's a fucking puzzle the dismay she probably felt the first five times someone came to the same conclusion elsewhere is muted by that familiarity. It grinds up something more like exasperated irritation, equally familiar, ancient fucking elves and their fucking riddles and they can't do anything straightforward, can they—

And she doesn't even know Solas is presently dicking about, in this very forest.

It is probably a combination of that irritation and the still-pinching burn she ought to do something about shortly that provokes, “I could try screaming into the void,” dryly, “recreate the experience of talking to these people—”

There was a time she cared for Solas, now known to be Fen'Harel, even if her pride would like to pretend she knew better all along. On the other hand, Flemeth can and indeed has always had the option of sucking her dick.

puts thumb over timestamps

[tender]

"I think the puzzle are meant to do that."

While Derrica has no experience with speaking to ancient elves, she suspects the puzzles will be as frustrating to deal with as Gwenaëlle is implying.

There is quiet dismay in her voice. She isn't much for puzzles. There is obviously a solution, some arrangement they'll have to hit upon with all these moving parts. At first glance, Derrica can't see it. She looks askance at them, before descending, giving a small, testing nudge to get the weight of them.

"Where should we start?"